(Bitdefender issues global alert pointing out attacks using "Malware as a Service" to propagate threats)
The antivirus maker Bitdefender, represented in Brazil by Securisoft, issued a global security alert on the intensification of malware attacks through malicious messages using as an attraction the offer of false content (news, health tips and catastrophic videos) involving the Coronavirus epidemic.
According to Securisoft, various types of malicious code are contaminating computers of corporate and home users, using the Emotet trojan malware, also known as Geodo or Mealybug, as a propagation tool.
Emotet, initially specializing in bank data theft, was first detected in 2014 and has since been heavily used by cybercrime.
According to Eduardo D'Antona, director at Securisoft and country partner at Bitdefender, the main feature of Emotet, which makes it attractive to criminals, is its ability to inoculate third-party computers from security flaws that are very common in applications text, spreadsheets and other office tools such as those contained in the Microsoft Office package.
As of 2016, Emotet's core code has been reconfigured to primarily function as a carrier for threats such as ransomware and spyware on an outsourced basis. That is, as a rental tool marketed in the hacker underworld in the MaaS (Malware as a Service) model for a wide variety of criminal activities. The form of contamination is, almost always, through the offer of a sensationalist attachment or containing false information "indispensable" to the victim.
Also according to D´Antona, Bitdefender and several other security companies have already detected several waves of malware related to the Coronavirus in several languages, but not yet with an appeal in Portuguese. "It is very likely that phishing messages in Portuguese will begin to appear as more cases of suspected coronavirus appear in Brazil or with the imminent rescue by the government of Brazilian travelers currently confined in China", concludes the executive.
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