Emotet accounts for almost two-thirds of payloads delivered by email during the start of 2019, as the malware continues to plague businesses and individuals around the world.
While it started life as a banking trojan, Emotet has evolved into more of a botnet, with its criminal operators leasing out loading capabilities and allowing other cyber attackers to deliver their own malware to victims as a secondary payload.
Such is the power of Emotet that analysis by security company Proofpoint has found that the malware accounted for almost all of the botnet payloads delivered by email between January and March 2019 – and botnets accounted for 61% of all malicious payloads sent in phishing messages during that period.
The reclassification of Emotet as a botnet, a type of malware that secretly takes hold of a large network of machines and can be exploited to perform malicious tasks without the victim being aware, has seen botnets rise to become the most common malicious threat delivered in email-based attacks.
Falanx Group Ltd (LON:FLX), through its subsidiaries, provides cyber defence and intelligence services to blue chip and government clients worldwide. It operates through Falanx Cyber Defence and Falanx Intelligence divisions.
