Viruses, Trojans, spyware, adware, and a lot more various kinds of malware are every tech-savvy person’s greatest nightmare. Among them, the emotet virus still manages to shake people to the core! This is why it is better to stay informed on how to detect and remove the emotet virus.
Despite being exceedingly deadly, many people remain in the dark regarding its existence. The virus first formed in 2014, and since then, it is responsible for targeting various economic sectors such as banks, healthcare departments, hospitals, manufacturing, and many others.
However, commercial facilities or large enterprises and a crumbling economy are not the primary purposes of the emotet virus. As it is mainly information-stealing malware, it can also infect individuals within malware campaigns. I have therefore compiled this article which guides you through:
- What is the emotet virus?
- Ways to detect emotet virus infection?
- How to remove the emotet virus?
So if you are interested in staying secure, let’s start with an introduction to the emotet virus:
What is the emotet virus?
An emotet virus is one of the deadliest cyber infections of the malware family with people terming it as a high-risk malware. The malware classifies as a trojan and infects devices to steal personal information such as:
- Passwords and usernames
- Social security numbers
- Email credentials from the email client software
- Browser history and passwords stored in the browser.
However, so far, it is known to steal bank information such as:
- Bank account credentials
- Credit card numbers
The virus, therefore, poses a risk of a severe financial crisis. Additionally, as it happens to be a trojan, it opens backdoors to various other malware and viruses in the system, such as Dridex. This ultimately leads to a chain of numerous malware infections within a system rendering the unfiltered device useless.
However, the deadliest aspect of the emotet virus is that, as per research, it tends to infect without the user’s consent. Some conventional means of an emotet virus infection are:
- Spam emails
- Malicious scripts
- Macro-enabled documents and files.
Once it manages to infiltrate within a system, it then tweaks within system settings to further proliferate itself. Moreover, the emotet virus can additionally connect the infected device to a botnet.
A successful connection to a botnet leads to the emotet virus proliferating through spam emails and further spreading malware infections to other systems. Another feature of malware that makes it exceedingly deadly is its sneakiness.
Although it hides within the system folders, the virus still manages to cover all its tracks artfully. Moreover, with hiding in the system settings, it registers itself as “system service” and modifies the present system settings. This allows emotet to autorun in the background every time the system starts.
How to detect emotet virus in PC?
Emotet virus stands to be one of the sneakiest malware infections. Once it infiltrates within your system, the virus makes use of its polymorphic nature. It quietly resides within the system files multiplying and opening doors for other malware to enter within the system.
As the emotet trojan long maintains a reputation of being “sneaky” in nature, there are no confirmed signs to validate you have an emotet virus infection. However, in Windows, Microsoft Security might alert you of its presence.
Additionally, scanning system files can also give way to identifying the presence of emotet trojans. Some common files it usually resides within are as follows:
- System%\{string 1}{string 2}.exe;
- %AppDataLocal%\Microsoft\Windows\{string 1}{string 2}.exe.
- c:\documents and settings\administrator\application data\7989841.bat
Moreover, as the trojan opens backdoors to several other malware infections, and it still resides within the system files, working on multiplying and causing havoc, there are sure general signs of malware infection you can look out for.
common signs of a malware infection
Once a virus, trojan, or malware infiltrates within your system, it starts to work and therefore tends to leave noticeable traces behind such as the following signs:
- Storage issues: As the trojan is present within system files and is continually multiplying, you can suddenly start facing storage issues despite the certainty you have not downloaded any large files.
- Applications start behaving abnormally: Your system will start behaving abnormally with most files opening up and closing automatically without manual interruptions
- Suspicious, pup-ups, toolbars, and redirects: Pop-ups and toolbars that you have no memory of downloading will start springing up along with redirects to suspicious-looking websites.
- System Overheating: With your system working more than usual while having the trojan using it for multiplication, you will find it overheating more than usual.
- You will start sending out spam: Emotet trojan connects to botnets and proliferates with sending out spam emails. If your friends start complaining to you about sending spams, it is better to be alert.
Albeit these signs do not necessarily hold out a trigger warning for malware infection, it is still better to keep a lookout for them. Most of us tend to brush them off as mere system defects. However, if all these signs start appearing with consistency, and there is nothing wrong with your hardware, then your system might have a malware infection.
Detect emotet virus on Mac.
Emotet virus infection within Mac takes the shape of an infinite looping process. The malware enters within the system through malicious spam emails, with the messages taking up legitimate disguises.
These messages may pose as:
- Tax return receipt
- Change in subscription terms
- Bank statements
- New order notification
These are mainly catchy disguises with attachments that get the user hooked on opening them. These attachments or links open up to present a Mac-compatible word document, which comes up as a blank file.
This blank file does not display any content as “macros is disabled,” and the system is configured to display a dialogue box, asking users to agree or disagree with enabling “macros.” Now Word macro files are vulnerable to authorized tampering.
Anyone who tries to tamper with Word macros files, these files allows downloading of malicious code through remote servers. This very thing allows macros files to download the emotet virus.
With macros enabled, the authors drop a copy of disruptive malware in mac, which then follows its general process of proliferation and spreading. This emotet virus can further add up keyloggers, ransomware, adware, and other malware within the vulnerable mac.
How to remove the emotet virus?
Emotet virus is indeed exceedingly sneaky and hard to get rid of. As mentioned above, the virus tends to silently work through its way of abusing privacy and wreaking havoc within systems. However, it is not entirely complicated to get rid of the emotet virus.
As it is a part of the malware family, using legitimate anti-malware software or authentic antivirus software can help you get rid of the virus. Let it be PC or Mac, all you need to do is choose one of the best anti-malware or antivirus software.
Once done with that, you can process with a deep malware scan. This deep malware scan consists of the software looking through and scanning every file or document present within the system.
As the emotet virus has been around since 2014, some of the best anti-malware/antivirus software identify the virus. The files it generally takes the form of are listed within the software’s database from where it mismatches to produce the best results.
Once the software identifies the virus, it proceeds to remove it from the system, however, while choosing an antimalware or antivirus software for your PC or Mac, it is crucial to put the following things into consideration:
- The level of protection it provides
- Does it offer additional protection such as firewalls?
- Is it customer-friendly and easy to use?
Additionally, it is better to choose a paid antimalware/ antivirus software. Albeit free software gets the job done, but it is better to get the paid version as free software is not legitimate.
Parting words
Having anti-malware/ antivirus software is a sure way to get rid of every harmful virus, malware, or trojan from every device. Apart from that, having such software within the computer can help mitigate such risks in the first place.
