SMS Attack Spreads Emotet, Steals Bank Credentials
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow4275_:
SMS Attack Spreads Emotet, Steals Bank Credentials:
A new Emotet campaign is spread via SMS messages pretending to be from banks and may have ties to the TrickBot trojan.
Attackers are sending SMS messages purporting to be from victims' banks - but once they click on the links in the text messages, they are asked to hand over their banking credentials and download a file that infects their systems with the Emotet malware.
Emotet has continued to evolve since its return in September, including a new, dangerous Wi-Fi hack feature disclosed last week that can let the malware spread like a worm. Now, this most recent campaign delivers the malware via "smishing," a form of phishing that relies on text messages instead of email. While smishing is certainly nothing new, researchers say that the delivery tactic exemplifies Emotet's operators constantly swapping up their approaches to go beyond mere malspam emails - making it hard for defense teams to keep up.
[...] The SMS messages purport to be from local U.S. numbers and impersonate banks, warning users of locked bank accounts. The messages urge victims to click on a link, which redirects them to a domain that's known to distribute Emotet (shabon[.]co). Visually, when victims click on the link they see a customized phishing page that mimics the bank's mobile banking page.
Threatpost has reached out to X-Force researchers regarding how many victims have received the SMS messages, and which banks the messages purport to be associated with.
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