Over time, Emotet gained additional functions: the malware also accesses its victims e-mail inbox and sends spam e-mails to contacts on their behalf. These contain harmful links. Anyone who clicks on such a link also infects their system with Emotet. In this way, the Trojan can spread to more and more computers. New versions of Emotet can also load other malware onto the computer and respond to emails independently.
Why Can’t My Antivirus Protect Me?
If you want to protect yourself from Emotet, you shouldn’t just rely on antivirus software. Because it does not necessarily recognize the Trojan. The reason: Emotet is a polymorphic virus. This means that the malware changes its code each time it is called up. Since many antivirus programs scan the computer for known malware codes, a code change can cause problems for protection programs. In this way, Emotet can initially go undetected.
How Dangerous Is Emotet?
US Federal Office for Information Security describes Emotet as the world’s most dangerous malware. In addition to private users, companies and administrations are also at risk from Emotet.
What Should I Do If My System Is Infected?
New tools like EmoCheck can help to clean infected systems. The tool advises users to regularly back up their data in order to prevent total loss due to pest infestation. If you want or need to be particularly careful with Emotet, you should set up a separate user account for emails and surfing on the computer.
Users whose system has been infected by Emotet should immediately inform their environment about the infection, as email contacts and especially the last conversation partners are particularly at risk. In addition, you should change the access data stored on infected computers – for example in browsers. So far, the tool has also recommended that computers with an Emotet infection can be rebuilt because the trojan and the downloaded malware sometimes make profound and security-related changes to the system.
