TrickBot Malware Adds New Tricks To Evade Antivirus Solutions

Word to the wise: If you’re keeping tabs on TrickBot malware and look away for a hot minute, new additions to its arsenal could happen. In this latest version, TrickBot’s operators added antivirus evasion techniques to its long list of cyber-tricks. With a history of 100 identified variations to date, how TrickBot evolves next has experts wondering what tomorrow’s new tricks will bring. TrickBot first earned its notorious reputation as a banking trojan and evolved over time to its current iteration.

TrickBot was first discovered in 2016, and its creators never failed adding improvements to the malware from its inception to today. A recent post by The Hacker News calls this latest TrickBot version a “multi-purpose crimeware-as-a-service (CaaS) that's employed by a variety of actors to deliver additional payloads such as ransomware.”

TrickBot’s operators designed its latest version by adding several layers to its defense characteristics to avoid anti-malware software and other security measures. As one IBM Trusteer writes in a report, “As part of that escalation, malware injections have been fitted with added protection to keep researchers out and get through security controls…In most cases, these extra protections have been applied to injections used in the process of online banking fraud — TrickBot's main activity since its inception after the Dyre Trojan’s demise.”

As TrickBot rolls on, users are once again left to fend for themselves – no real surprise there. Whether an individual or an enterprise, there are measures that when followed, can keep both informed and safer from TrickBot and other malware.

Protect Yourself, Protect Your Enterprise

Individuals can track TrickBot’s latest versions, other malware, trending cyberattacks, and how they target victims, by keeping up with cybersecurity news. Knowing what damage malware can do personally, financially, and otherwise, including how attacks begin, is important. What you learn may be a little daunting, but not knowing is even worse.

Enterprise has its own ways to defend their data systems from compromise and financial loss. Aside from having anti-malware security installed and updated along with other programs and apps, regular employee education can help prevent even the worst of cyberattacks.

Since 96% of malware is delivered via email phishing, employees are right in the line of defense against them. A cyber-smart staffer who’s been trained to spot phishing can keep an entire enterprise safe from attack. Cybersecurity training for staff, company leaders, and everyone in-between should be a regular event since malware continues to morph and trend as TrickBot shows. A program of ongoing, updated cyber-education may end up being the best investment in any company’s future.

So, remember overall, ignorance is never bliss when it comes to cybersecurity.

Stickley on Security