Trickbot malware has risen to fill the gap left by the takedown of the Emotet botnet, with a higher number of criminals shifting towards it to distribute malware attacks.
Emotet was the world’s most prolific and dangerous malware botnet before it was disrupted by an international law enforcement operation in January this year.
What initially emerged as a banking trojan in 2014 went on to become much more, establishing backdoors on compromised Windows machines which were leased out to other cyber-criminal groups to conduct their own malware or ransomware campaigns.
While the disruption of Emotet represented a blow for cyber criminals, they’ve quickly adapted and now Trickbot has become the most prevalent form of malware.
Trickbot offers many of the same capabilities as Emotet, providing cyber criminals with a means of delivering additional malware onto compromised machines – and according to analysis of malware campaigns by cybersecurity researchers at Check Point, it’s now become the most commonly distributed malware in the world.
First distributed in 2016, Trickbot has long been up there with the most prolific forms of malware, but with the crackdown on Emotet, has quickly become an even more popular way for criminals to widely distribute their chosen cyberattack campaigns.
By Danny Palmer
March 11, 2021