The Emotet malware botnet is taking advantage of the 2022 U.S. tax season by sending out malicious emails pretending to be the Internal Revenue Service sending tax forms or federal returns.
Emotet is a malware infection distributed through phishing emails with attached Word or Excel documents containing malicious macros. Once these documents are opened, they will trick the user into enabling macros that will download the Emotet malware onto the computer.
Once Emotet is installed, the malware will steal victims' emails to use in future
reply-chain attacks, send further spam emails, and ultimately install other malware that could
lead to a Conti ransomware attack on the compromised network.