Security News > 2021 > November > Emotet botnet comeback hatched by ex-Ryuk member now part of Conti gang
The Emotet botnet is back by popular demand, resurrected by its former operator convinced by ex-members of the Ryuk ransomware gang.
Security researchers at intelligence company Advanced Intelligence believe that restarting the project was driven by the void Emotet itself left behind on the high-quality initial access market after law enforcement took it down ten months ago.
Considered the most widely distributed malware, Emotet acted as a malware loader that provided other malware operators initial access to infected systems that were assessed as valuable.
The botnet operators provided initial access at an industrial scale, so many malware operations depended on Emotet for their attacks, especially those in the so-called Emotet-TrickBot-Ryuk triad. AdvIntel researchers say that once Emotet disappeared from the scene, top-tier cybercriminal groups, like Conti and DoppelPaymer were left without a viable option for high-quality initial access.
The Conti group, with at least one Ryuk former member on board and in partnership with Emotet's biggest client, TrickBot, was in the best position to ask Emotet operators for a comeback.
AdvIntel researchers are confident that the Conti group will deliver their payload to high-value targets via Emotet once the botnet grows, and will become a dominant player on the ransomware scene.