EMOTET Take Down Heralds Global Law Enforcement

the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) announced that the EMOTET botnet has been disrupted as a result of efforts from law enforcement and judicial authorities across several countries. This coordinated action means that law enforcement has taken control of the cybercriminal’s infrastructure and halted EMOTET’s widespread malicious activity.

The botnet comprised hundreds of servers located around the world. Each server, individually and collectively, enabled the attackers to manage infected computers and continue the spread of malware. Those bad actors have been thwarted and won’t be wreaking havoc as readily as they have in the past.

Private companies also worked with law enforcement, so this was a collaborative, well planned effort. By disrupting the criminal’s infrastructure from the inside, the participating bodies were able to redirect the computers of people victimized by EMOTET to an infrastructure controlled by law enforcement. Europol called the effort a new and unique way to disrupt the activities of cybercriminals.

For now, EMOTET is set back in a major way.  I say ‘for now” because cybercriminals sneaky, convoluted ways of worming their way into networks seems never ending; to say EMOTET is gone for good is a misnomer. Developers and those who operated EMOTET will find a way to recover remnants of it and incorporate them into a new version. We can assume core pieces will live on through other tools and methods.

The week’s global hurrah: This new way of disrupting activity is a significant breakthrough.

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