For years, cyber\ncriminals have increased spam campaigns around tax time, in an attempt to make\na quick buck. This year is no\ndifferent. Cyber criminals have begun\ndistributing the banking Trojan, TrickBot, through malicious emails\nfraudulently portraying tax and payroll services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Researchers confirmed\nthe malware has been used in three different malware campaigns since late\nJanuary. These email campaigns are\ntargeting victims pretending to be from large accounting, tax and payroll\nservices firms, like ADP and Paychex. However, in reality the messages were\ncarrying malicious Microsoft Excel attachments masked as tax or billing\ninvoices, which upon opening will download and execute the TrickBot trojan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the Trojan is\ninstalled on one endpoint, TrickBot does two things. First, it steals as much data as possible on\nthe device. The data stolen can range\nfrom basic email content to banking credentials \u2013 the possibilities are\nlimitless, as the hackers have full control of the device. Then, the malware attempts to spread\nthroughout the network to maximize destruction. \nIf it is able to spread to additional devices, it will again steal as\nmuch data as possible on each device it touches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately,\nTrickBot is not noticeable to the average user, as the action it takes is\nexecuted in the background. However, IT\nprofessionals will likely notice the changes in traffic or attempts to connect\nto unauthorized domains when the malware tries to connect to its\ncommand-and-control servers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Researchers have\nconfirmed the mail styles, behavior of the malicious attachments, and the subsequent\nmalware URLs were the same for all three email campaigns used to distribute\nTrickBot. Due to these three\nsimilarities, it is believed the same cyber criminals were behind all three\ncampaigns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exact target of\nthese emails is unknown; however, since the hackers are fraudulently portraying\nlarge firms, like ADP and Paychex, the attacks are likely to have some success.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Banking Trojan TrickBot Spreads Like Wildfire For years, cyber criminals have increased spam campaigns around tax time, in an attempt to make a quick buck. This year is no different. Cyber criminals have begun distributing the banking Trojan, TrickBot, through malicious emails fraudulently portraying tax and payroll services. Researchers confirmed the malware has been used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":52687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,183],"tags":[5631,5596],"class_list":["post-60916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","category-tips","tag-banking-trojan","tag-trickbot"],"yoast_head":"\n