A new update designed by law enforcement has begun the process of removing the Emotet botnet across the world, ridding nearly 1.6 million infected computers of the malware. Law enforcement agencies in the US, Canada, and Europe coordinated a takedown of Emotet infrastructure in January of this year, seeking to terminate one of the world’s largest botnets used to spreading harmful banking trojans, remote access tools, and ransomware. Emotet was known for distributed millions of malware-infected spam emails each day, amassing thousands of victims.
The Emotet update was set to be released on April 25, however, it has just been distributed. The update will remove the malware, which was created through reverse engineering Emotet’s botnet infrastructure to discover a way to dismantle it. The uninstall routine is simple, according to researchers. According to a January FBI press release, foreign law enforcement agents had found 1.6 million computers worldwide that had been infected with the malware, 45,000 of which are believed to be located in the US. Distributing the uninstaller is a significant step to ridding the world of one of its most dangerous and expansive malware.
Read More: This software update is deleting botnet malware from infected PCs around the world
