Emotet is now participating in the United States presidential election with a new spam campaign pretending to come from the Democratic National Convention's Team Blue initiative.
When the Emotet gang sends spam, their main goal is to convince recipients to open the attached malicious document. This is usually done through email subjects that pretend to send documents, invoices, payment receipts, and voicemails.
During holidays or major political events, the Emotet gang is known to send out various emails to convince users to open attachments. These emails include invitations to parties or even a Greta Thunberg demonstration.
Once the attachments are opened and macros, the Emotet malware will install itself on a computer. It will then steal your emails and use your computer to send further spam.
Eventually, Emotet will install other malware like TrickBot or QakBot that can lead to a ransomware attack on your network.
Emotet is trying to exploit the 2020 elections
A few days after the first presidential debate, the threat actors behind Emotet are launching a new spam campaign pretending to come from the DNC.
This new campaign is pretending to be from the Democratic Party's "Team Blue Take Action" initiative, asking for volunteers to help Democrats get elected in the 2020 election
According to ProofPoint, which detected this new Emotet campaign, the spam emails use email subjects such as "Team Blue Take Action," "Volunteers 2020," "List of Works," and "Volunteer.".
The malicious documents are also named to match the subject of the email and have file such as "Team Blue Take Action.doc", "List of works.doc", "Valanters 2020.doc", and "Volunteer.doc".
When the email is opened, the attached documents will pretend to be created by an iOS and ask you to tap “Enable Content” to view them properly.
Once you enable the content, however, it will launch malicious macros that will download and install the Emotet trojan on your computer.
The Trojan will run silently in the background while using computer to send further spam and download other malware to your computer.
As a general rule, never open attachments from anyone without confirming over the phone that they actually sent you the file. You should also always be cautious when enabling content or macros in any attachment you receive.
