Check Point Research, the Threat Intelligence arm of Check Point Software Technologies, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions globally, has published its latest UAE Threat Index for January 2021. Researchers found that banking trojan Trickbot impacted 7% of organisations in the UAE, while the EMOTET trojan which has remained in first place in the top malware list globally for a second month running impacting 6% of businesses in the UAE.
Trickbot is a modular Banking Trojan that targets the Windows platform and is mostly delivered via spam campaigns or other malware families such as EMOTET. Trickbot sends information about the infected system and can also download and execute arbitrary modules from a large array of available modules within a compromised network. Once a machine is infected, the Trickbot gang, the threat actors behind this malware, utilise this wide array of modules not only to steal banking credentials from the target PC, but also for lateral movement and reconnaissance on the targeted organisation itself, prior to delivering a company-wide targeted ransomware attack.
“We’re seeing an increase in ransomware and malware attacks in the UAE since the pandemic began last year. While EMOTET continues to impact businesses, it is interesting to see how quickly Trickbot has evolved as top malware targeting organisations in the UAE,” said Ram Narayanan, Country Manager, Check Point Software Technologies – Middle East. “Considering UAE is currently ranked number 32 on the high-risk index, businesses must be extra vigilant and deploy efficient technologies to prevent these attacks in real time to ensure these malwares don’t cause further serious damage by being the gateway to a ransomware attack.”
