History of Malware

The Birth of Malware

Emotet first appeared in 2014, but like Zeus, it has since evolved into a modular program used to deliver other forms of malware. Examples of malware delivered by Emotet include Trickster and Ryuk. The program’s effectiveness has earned it a reputation as the “king of malware” among security experts.

The IoT Era

In recent years, the rise of the internet of things (IoT) has brought about new vectors for malware attacks. IoT devices, with their increased computing power and frequent lack of security patches, have become lucrative targets for hackers. The Mirai botnet, which emerged in 2016, is a prime example of this threat.

The Mirai Botnet

The Mirai botnet was created by Paras Jha, a college student, who intended to use it for distributed denial-of-service (DoS) attacks against Minecraft server hosting rivalries. However, the malware unexpectedly targeted a major DNS provider, knocking out internet access for much of the US east coast for nearly a day. The Mirai botnet exploited vulnerable IoT devices, primarily CCTV cameras, using default passwords that had not been changed.