A trojan virus known as Emotet has become a very serious problem in recent months.  As your IT partner, we feel it’s important to provide insight to help you and your organization avoid being compromised by this incredibly troublesome outbreak.  

Emotet is a banking trojan malware program which obtains financial information by injecting computer code into an infected Microsoft Windows computer, allowing sensitive data to be stolen via transmission.  Emotet malware is also able to steal address book data to further the spread of its infection.  Beyond this, the software functions as a sort of “on-ramp” for other infections, allowing additional malicious code to enter compromised systems.  The most prominent form of distribution has been malicious documents or URL links inside the body of an email, sometimes disguised as an invoice or PDF attachment, or a malicious JavaScript attachment.

This is a very serious outbreak.  The remediation process for this type of infection is extremely labor intensive and can be quite costly.  That said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Prevention Steps

·         Don’t click on that link and don’t open that attachment!  Unless an expected e-mail with an expected attachment is being sent to you from a known and trusted contact, do NOT open it.  This advice is even more applicable to URL’s/links.

·         Keep PC’s up-to-date.  If your PC is alerting you that updates need to be installed or a reboot is pending to apply updates, etc. it is important that you let this process complete.

·         When in doubt, ask!  We’re here to help.  If you’re unsure about an e-mail, attachment or link, don’t hesitate to reach out.  Our team is here to help.

Our goal at JENLOR is to keep your network running as smoothly and securely as possible and we want to help our clients stay in front of this infection.  If you have any questions about Emotet or other concerns in your environment, feel free to reach out.