The fact of the matter is this—cybercriminals are targeting your business. As reported in the Malwarebytes Labs Cybercrime Tactics and Techniques Report (CTNT), attacks on businesses went up 55 percent in the second half of 2018 with Trojans and ransomware proving to be the most popular types of attacks. Specifically, Trojan attacks on businesses rose 84 percent while ransomware attacks went up 88 percent. Phishing often plays an important role in Trojan and ransomware attacks, because cybercriminals rely on phishing emails to get victims to download the malware and initiate the attack.
The Emotet banking Trojan, for instance, that wreaked havoc throughout 2018 includes a spam module that scans contact lists on an infected computer and sends your friends, family, and coworkers phishing emails that link to a malware laden attachment or download. In an interesting twist, Emotet, once a banking Trojan in its own right, is now being used to deliver other malware, including ransomware.
What happens once malware like Emotet gets a foothold on your network via a phishing attack? Just ask the beleaguered city officials of Allentown. The 2018 attack on the Pennsylvania city required direct help from Microsoft’s incident response team to clean up and reportedly cost the city upwards of one million dollars to fix.
See all our reporting on phishing at Malwarebytes Labs.
The Emotet banking Trojan, for instance, that wreaked havoc throughout 2018 includes a spam module that scans contact lists on an infected computer and sends your friends, family, and coworkers phishing emails that link to a malware laden attachment or download. In an interesting twist, Emotet, once a banking Trojan in its own right, is now being used to deliver other malware, including ransomware.
What happens once malware like Emotet gets a foothold on your network via a phishing attack? Just ask the beleaguered city officials of Allentown. The 2018 attack on the Pennsylvania city required direct help from Microsoft’s incident response team to clean up and reportedly cost the city upwards of one million dollars to fix.
See all our reporting on phishing at Malwarebytes Labs.