FBI: Phishing emails are spreading this sophisticated malware

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint advisory warning people about a sophisticated spear-phishing campaign involving the Trickbot malware, reports ZDnet. Trickbot started out as a banking trojan and is now one of the most powerful and common form of malware used by cyber criminals to access infected computers to deliver their own malware and then steal sensitive information like login credentials. The newest campaign uses phishing emails with proof of traffic violations that aim to scare victims into opening the email that contains a link, which directs them to a compromised website controlled by the hackers when clicked. A group of cybersecurity companies attempted to take down Trickbot last year but cyber criminals were able to quickly resume their operations. "To completely remove Trickbot from the landscape would be extremely difficult and likely require a coordinated international law enforcement effort like we saw with Emotet. In fact, after the actions of October 2020, we saw Trickbot campaigns resume within weeks, and it has been active continually since," said Sherrod DeGrippo, Proofpoint's senior director of threat research and detection.