First detected by cybersecurity researchers in 2014, Emotet was created as a Trojan virus to steal financial data for illicit monetary gain. Today, Emotet is becoming a significant threat as cyber threat actors have modified the malware to download and deliver other malicious variants.

Between Jan. 1 and June 31 this year, Ensign InfoSecurity found that Emotet activities in Singapore have increased by more than 300% compared to the same period last year. It has also detected activities from this malware in 50% of local organizations’ network.

Traditionally used to target the financial services sector, Emotet has been modified to target other industries.

In Singapore, Ensign uncovered that the top five sectors with the highest regularity of observed Emotet activities in the first half of 2019 were:

Top 5 sectors with the highest regularity of observed Emotet activities

“Due to its modular and polymorphic composition, Emotet is almost invisible to conventional signature-based cybersecurity solutions, said Dr. Lim Woo Lip, Executive Vice President, Technology & Capabilities, Ensign InfoSecurity. “By tapping on advanced analytics and deep learning to tackle sophisticated threats, cybersecurity teams will not only be able to detect and respond to an attack in a timely and effective manner, but also analyze and decipher valuable intelligence that can be used to devise preemptive measures to stop future attacks,” said Lim.