Cybersecurity organizations are battling the rise of emotet and omnatuor malvertising

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Malicious threats continue to evade detection and spread rapidly through networks. This is especially true for emotet and omnatuor malware, which are of growing concern in the cybersecurity community.

This malware can be distributed via email, social media, and even legitimate websites that the attackers have hacked. Once installed, they can steal sensitive information such as login credentials and financial information. Additionally, attackers often use infected computers to launch further attacks, making it difficult for organizations to contain the damage.

But over time, these attacks have evolved into a much more sophisticated and dangerous threat, highlighting the need for businesses to be vigilant and proactive. More than ever, businesses and organizations must keep pace and implement robust security measures to protect against growing threats.

From Banking Trojan to Malware-as-a-Service

Emotet, a modular banking Trojan, first appeared in 2014 and has since evolved into a sophisticated and dangerous threat. Emotet is malware as a service delivered via malicious scripts, links or macro enabled document files. The malware is known for its ability to grab payloads from command and control servers, allowing it to install updated versions of the virus and dump stolen information, such as credit card numbers and email addresses. Additionally, emotet has been used as a delivery mechanism for other malware, including the omnatuor malvertising campaign.

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In January 2021, emotet took a heavy hit as law enforcement in the Netherlands, UK, US, Germany, France, Lithuania, Canada and Ukraine carried out a coordinated removal operation of the notorious malware. Despite this setback, emotet has managed to make a comeback, its authors adapting their techniques to evade Microsoft's growing VBA macro security countermeasures.

After 11 months of inactivity, reports of emotet-related spam campaigns began to increase in the first half of 2022. The high-profile attack on the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics on June 12 further underlined this resurgence.

Credible but expensive masquerades

Now, emotet's ability to adapt and evade detection has again put it at the top of the list of the world's most impactful malware families, making it a threat that organizations and individuals must take seriously.

"Since 2021, emotet hasn't changed its core capabilities and code structure too much except for moving to 64-bit, but it has evolved its infection flow each time to avoid detections," said Mark Vaitzman, threat lab team lead at Deep Instinct. “In their last major campaign in November 2022, we saw a spike in emotet infection attempts in the wild. Emotet was detected deploying Quantum, BlackCat, and Bumblebee. could be used by ransom group affiliate programs which are currently very popular. Recently, we may be seeing more new strains of infostealers than any other type of malware."

One of the most insidious aspects of emotet is its ability to impersonate communication from a legitimate organization, and these emails often use familiar subject lines such as "Account Alert", "Invoice" and "Automatic Billing Message" to trick users into thinking they are legitimate. Stratagems inc...