Frankfurt, Germany is a bustling financial hub of Europe with a population close to 750,000 people. It’s a high-city that’s home to the European Central Bank. It’s also a city whose IT network had to be shut down completely due to a malware infection.
Germany’s cyber-security agency, BSI, made the decision after the network was infected by Emotet malware. This trojan not only attacks your system, the hackers behind it sell access to your network to other malicious actors who can steal information or hold your network hostage.
Also recently attacked with Emotet malware were two German universities. The scary part is that they apparently gained access to the systems by impersonating the BSI and sending emails that claimed to be from the security agencies. According to an alert from BSI, these emails looked very much like real alerts they send to government agencies. When recipients clicked on links, they infected their networks.
The BSI offers the same suggestion I always do, be very cautious when clicking on a link in so-called alerts you receive via email. If possible, just open up a browser and head to the website for the organization to verify if it’s real