One of the world's most infamous Trojans/malware/droppers, Emotet, seems to be losing steam as summer break begins.
Check Point Research's recent Global Threat Index for July 2022 found that Emotet's global impact, compared to June, was down 50%, but warned that it was still the reigning champion among malware and that wouldn't change anytime soon. term.
"Emotet continues to dominate our monthly malware rankings," said Maya Horowitz, vice president of research at Check Point Software. "This botnet is constantly evolving to maintain its persistence and evasion. Its latest developments include a credit card theft module, which means that businesses and individuals need to be very careful when shopping online. Now that Microsoft confirms that will block macros by default, We're waiting to see how malware like Snake Keylogger might change course.
Emotet still far ahead
Last month was the peak of Emotet, the researchers added, adding that the Trojan is now back to its standard global impact numbers. While it's hard to pin down exactly what caused the crash, the researchers believe it's likely due to the summer break, not because the threat actor is backing down. Emotet, which is constantly introducing new features, is proof of these claims.
That said, Emotet is still the most widespread malware in the world, with an overall impact of 7%. At 3%, Formbook is in second place, followed by XMRig with an overall impact of 2%. Formbook is a six-year-old data stealer for Windows, marketed as malware-as-a-service and capable of stealing data from web browsers, collecting screenshots, logging keystrokes, and downloading and executing files.
XMRig, on the other hand, is a well-known cryptominer, a software that mines XMR (Monero) cryptocurrencies for attackers. Although XMRig isn't exactly a virus (opens in a new tab) and doesn't necessarily steal data or destroy the terminal it's installed on, it uses most of the computing power, leaving the device slow and inefficient.