Back to blogs
Malware
Operation Ladybird: A Nefarious Disruption Of Emotet Malware
EMOTET, one of the notorious email-based Windows malware behind numerous botnet-driven spam campaigns & ransomware attacks
Continue reading
EMOTET, one of the notorious email-based Windows malware behind numerous botnet-driven spam campaigns & ransomware attacks
Continue reading
EMOTET, identified as one of the notorious email-based Windows malware behind numerous botnet-driven spam campaigns & Ransomware attacks over the past decades, has been the longest-running cybercrime services out on the web. It was first discovered back in 2014 as a banking trojan. Since then, it has evolved to be the most preferred solution for any threat actors out there, from a data defalcator to a malicious downloader, data scraper & infamous spambot, depending on its deployment. The key takeaways of this malware are its infrastructure, leveraged to gain unauthorized access into a computer system. These entry points are further sell-off to top cybercriminals groups for conducting additional illicit activities such as data theft and cyber extortion through ransomware. Besides, it often remains under the radar of continuous development for other refinements to enhance its overall stealthiness, persistence, and spying abilities through a wide array of modules involving a Wi-Fi spreader for identifying and compromising new victims connected on public Wi-Fi networks.
However, the coordinated efforts from eight multinational government agencies, including law enforcement, national securities & cyber intelligence agencies, eventually decimated the infrastructural ecosystem of EMOTET through operational labeling called LADYBIRD.
Operation LADYBIRD was successfully conducted with authorities from the Netherlands, Germany, the U.S., the U.K., France, Lithuania, Canada, and Ukraine to gain control over the servers used to maintain the malware network.
An official statement coming from EUROPOL specified that,
*"The Emotet infrastructure essentially acted as a primary door opener for computer systems on a global scale,"*
*"What made Emotet so dangerous is that the malware was offered for hire to other cybercriminals to install other types of malware, such as banking Trojans or ransomware, onto a victim's computer."*
The Malware was found to be evident last year through several botnet-driven spam campaigns and even displayed its capabilities by delivering more dangerous payloads such as TrickBot and Ryuk ransomware by renting its botnet of compromised machines to other malware groups.
According to EUROPOL,
*"The Emotet group managed to take e-mail as an attack vector to a next level,"*
Adding more details on the public domain, the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the U.K revealed that it took over two years for this operation to figure out the actual infrastructure of Emotet. Besides, multiple properties in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv were raided to seize several computer equipments, including EMOTET 700 Servers operated worldwide to maintain this Malware lifespan; we're ultimately takedown from inside prevent the infection from affecting any other machines shortly.
And those machines already infected by the malware are set to be directed to this law enforcement-infrastructure.
From that same instance, two individuals were arrested by the Cyber Police Department of Ukrain, suspecting the alleged involvement in the botnet's infrastructure maintenance, both of whom can experience 12 years in prison until found guilty.
*"Analysis of accounts used by the group behind Emotet showed $10.5 million being moved over two years on just one Virtual Currency platform," the NCA said, adding "almost $500,000 had been spent by the group over the same period to maintain its criminal infrastructure."*
On a global scale, the calculated damages linked to Emotet can most like to be around $2.5 billion, as per the sources of Ukrainian Authorities.
In continuation to this investigative thread, Dutch National Police has also released a native tool to check for potential compromisation, based on the datasets containing 600,000 user credentials such as e-mail addresses, usernames, and passwords that were identified during Operation LADYBIRD.
Emotet to Be Wiped En Masse on April 25, 2021
The Dutch police, which seized two central servers located in the country, said it had deployed a software update to neutralize the threat posed by Emotet effectively.
*"All infected computer systems will automatically retrieve the update there, after which the Emotet infection will be quarantined,"* the agency said.
A tweet from a cybersecurity researcher recognized by the username milkream stated that Emotet is most likely expected to get wiped out on April 25, 2021, at midnight local time from all compromised machines.
With all the motivation backed robust disruption taking into action for permanently wiping out this EMOTET Malware from its profound existence, often leaves raising a question, *" what if Emotet manages to stage come back."*
If that turned out to be a reality shortly, it'd eventually be the first time a botnet survived significant disruption efforts.
Abuse.ch's Feodo Tracker detects at least 20 EMOTET Servers are still active online.
*"A combination of both updated cybersecurity tools (antivirus and operating systems) and cybersecurity awareness is essential to avoid falling victim to sophisticated botnets like Emotet,"* Europol warned.
*"Users should carefully check their e-mail and avoid opening messages and especially attachments from unknown senders. If a message seems too good to be true, it likely is, and e-mails that implore a sense of urgency should be avoided at all costs."*
