At the end of January, under the coordination of Eurojust and Europol, law enforcement and judicial authorities worldwide disrupted EMOTET, a malware programme that acts as an unauthorised door opener for computer systems on a global scale. A “unique feature” of EMOTET is that it is offered for hire to other cybercriminals to install various types of malware – so-called “loader” operations. This has made EMOTET a dangerous force in the world of cybercrime.

To disrupt the EMOTET infrastructure, law enforcement and judicial authorities gained control from the inside and redirected victims’ infected machines towards their own, controlled infrastructure.