		<div class="wpcnt">
			<div class="wpa">
				<span class="wpa-about">Advertisements</span>
				<div class="u top_amp">
							<amp-ad width="300" height="265"
		 type="pubmine"
		 data-siteid="111265417"
		 data-section="1">
		</amp-ad>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div><p>Law enforcement authorities in several countries, including the UK, have joined forces to disrupt what they call one of the world’s most dangerous pieces of malware.</p>
<p>They said it allowed criminal gangs to install ransomware and steal data from computer users.</p>
<p>European Union police and judicial agencies Europol and Eurojust said that investigators took control of infrastructure behind a botnet called Emotet. A botnet is a network of hijacked computers used to carry out cyber attacks.</p>
<p>Authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, the US, France, Lithuania, Canada and Ukraine also took part in the international operation co-ordinated by the two Hague-based agencies.</p>
<p>Dutch prosecutors said the malware was first discovered in 2014 and “evolved into the go-to solution for cyber criminals over the years”. They added: “The EMOTET infrastructure essentially acted as a primary door opener for computer systems on a global scale.”</p>
<p>The Dutch prosecutors said two of the main servers for the infrastructure were based in the Netherlands and a third in another undisclosed country. The national prosecutor’s office said the damage caused by EMOTET runs into the hundreds of millions of euros.</p>
<p>“This is a really big deal. Emotet was one of the largest, if not the largest, botnets delivering a wide variety of malware. Their botnet consisted of hundreds of thousands of compromised hosts which were used to send more than 10 million spam and phishing emails a week,” said Allan Liska, an analyst with Recorded Future.</p>
<p>Jake Williams, president of cyber security firm Rendition Infosec, said “there’s no question that this will hurt (ransomware gangs) and help defenders in the short/mid term”.</p>
<p>The malicious software was delivered to computers in infected email attachments containing Word documents.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">âï¸ð Global cooperation leading to results:</p>
<p>In a major operation coordinated by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Eurojust?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Eurojust</a> &; <a href="https://twitter.com/Europol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Europol</a>, the world&#39;s most dangerous malware botnet <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Emotet?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Emotet</a> has been disrupted.</p>
<p>All details &; how your data may have been affected:<br />â¡ï¸ <a href="https://t.co/hpZmlqKMPw">https://t.co/hpZmlqKMPw</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EMPACT?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EMPACT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StrongerTogether?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StrongerTogether</a> <a href="https://t.co/JsO1QrinOL">pic.twitter.com/JsO1QrinOL</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Eurojust (@Eurojust) <a href="https://twitter.com/Eurojust/status/1354398765906595845?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>“A variety of different lures were used to trick unsuspecting users into opening these malicious attachments,” Dutch prosecutors said in a statement. “In the past, Emotet email campaigns have also been presented as invoices, shipping notices and information about Covid-19.”</p>
<p>Europol said law enforcement agencies teamed up to take down the criminal infrastructure from the inside.</p>
<p>“The infected machines of victims have been redirected towards this law enforcement-controlled infrastructure,” the agency said. “This is a unique and new approach to effectively disrupt the activities of the facilitators of cyber crime.”</p>
<p>The operation was not the first time that cyber crime fighters have infiltrated illicit computer operations. In 2017, police shut down the world’s leading “darknet” marketplace — then Dutch police quietly seized a second bazaar to amass intelligence on illicit drug merchants and buyers.</p>
			<div style="padding-bottom:15px;" class="wordads-tag" data-slot-type="belowpost">
				<div id="atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68eceb1567007">
					<script type="text/javascript">
						window.getAdSnippetCallback = function () {
							if ( false === ( window.isWatlV1 ?? false ) ) {
								// Use Aditude scripts.
								window.tudeMappings = window.tudeMappings || [];
								window.tudeMappings.push( {
									divId: 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68eceb1567007',
									format: 'belowpost',
								} );
							}
						}

						if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) {
							document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', window.getAdSnippetCallback );
						} else {
							window.getAdSnippetCallback();
						}
					</script>
				</div>
			</div>
Discover more from London Glossy Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
