Emotet is still the worst malware in the world but maybe not for so long. It now seems that operators of Emotet are taking a break.
Emotet Is Still the Worst Malware in the World
One of the most notorious malware, Emotet now seems to be running out of steam a little bit as the summer holiday kicks off. The recent global threat index for July 2022 by check points research shows the impact of Emotet and when compared to June fell off by a whopping 50%. But it, however, warned that it’s still the reigning champion among all malware and that is not set to change anytime soon.
“Emotet continues to dominate our monthly top malware charts,” said the VP of research at checkpoint software, Maya Horowitz. “This botnet continually evolves to maintain its persistence and evasion. Its latest developments include a credit card stealer module, meaning that enterprises and individuals must take extra care when making any online purchases. In addition, with Microsoft now confirming that it will block macros by default, we await to see how malware, such as Snake Keylogger, may change their tactics.”
Emotet Is Still the Leading Malware in the World
The researchers further stated that Emotet’s peak was last month, adding that the malware is back to its standard global impact numbers. And while at the moment is still difficult to determine the cause of this drop, the researchers are speculating that it is most likely to the summer holidays and not due to the rumor that the threat actor is backing out. And with Emotet introducing new features is evidence of such claims and rumors.
Emotet currently is still the most widespread malware in the world even at that with a world impact of 7%. Formbook takes the second position with 3% and then followed by XMRig with a 2% global impact. Formbook is a six-year-old infostealer for windows that is marketed as malware as a service and it is capable of stealing data from collecting screenshots, web browsers, logging keystrokes and downloading and executing files.
XMRig Is Popularly Known As a Cryptominer
XMRig meanwhile is popularly known as a cryptominer which is a piece of software that mines the MXR (Monero) cryptocurrency for attackers. And while XMRig is not really a virus and does not really steal data or destroy the endpoint on which it’s installed on, it does make use of a majority of the computing power thus leaving the device underperforming and very slow.
