Emotet is a phishing worm that every business owner should know about by now. This destructive and exceptionally nasty ever-changing malware uses multiple sophisticated techniques to beat network defenses meaning that businesses have to have the best cybersecurity defenses to stop it.
Emotet is not a new malware. In fact, it has been around for a number of years. It started of a Trojan that was used by criminals to illegally collect banking details in compromised accounts. However, over the years, it has evolved into a more sophisticated malware platform used by criminals to distribute other malware into network systems.
Today, the developers of Emotet who are motivated by financial gain use it as a delivery system for any criminal who is willing to pay for their malware to be delivered into business networks. Of late, it has been associated with the delivery of sophisticated ransomware malware that is affecting most companies today. To highlight the high threat nature of this worm, the United States Department of Homeland Security has labelled Emotet the most destructive cyberattack malware targeting businesses in the United States.
Emotet is not just a threat to businesses in the U.S. It is a threat to businesses globally.
How Does Emotet Infect Business Networks?
Emotet is typically sent in the form of a spam email. Receivers of the email are usually encouraged to open an email containing a malicious document that appears to come from reputable brands such as Amazon, AT&T and PayPal.
What Does Emotet Do Once It Infects One Business Computer?
Emotet is a malware that is designed to wreck as much havoc as possible in a business. Once it is introduced into one computer, it will try to:
- Infect as many other computers as possible
Emotet is a worm and it does not need to be spread through human actions. Once this malware infects one computer in the organization, it can travel through your network and infect any other computers connected to the business network.
- Once inside a business computer, it will also try to send malicious emails to other organizations so as to infect their computers.
- Infect your browsers so that the next time you log into a bank or other online banking platform it can gain access to your funds.
- At times, Emotet also skims through your email list and siphons your business email list and other client data to be sold to criminals who will use the emails to spread more phishing tools through spam email.
- It can also go to your web browser and steal your browsing history saved usernames and other data.
- Emotet sometimes also acts as a smokescreen delivering ransomware malware into your business networks.
How Can You Stop Emotet From Getting into Your Business Network?
Below are some of the steps that you can take to prevent Emotet from infecting your business network.
- Acquire sophisticated email and web protection solutions
- Sandbox your business networks
- Have an intrusion prevention system in place
- Have application control mechanisms
- Acquire modern, multi-layered threat protection solution for your business
- Synchronize your cyber defenses to work together
If you want to totally block Emotet from taking advantage of your business network systems, you should:
- Secure all the machines in your network. Additionally, it is best that you run an advanced IP scan to detect if there any unauthorized machines on your network.
- Make sure that you obtain and use the latest security patches for your multi-layered defense system as soon as they are released.
- You should also block all the computers on your network from running Power Shell automatically. Remember that Emotet is a worm and it can use power shell to inject other malware into your network or spread to other machines.
