'Christmas Party' Email Virus

The 'Christmas Party' email virus is a phishing scheme that the operators of the Emotet banking Trojan used near the end of 2019. However, it is very likely that the same scheme will once again be used when the Christmas season approaches, and this time it might not be used to spread just one malware family.

The scheme works by sending fake emails to employees that urge them to volunteer to help set up the venue for the office Christmas party. It is not clear if the 'Christmas Party' email virus targets particular organizations and companies – it is likely that the attackers have managed to get their hands on a large email database that contains addresses from various companies.

The 'Christmas Party' email virus claims that people who wish to participate in the celebrations need to download a file attachment titled 'menu.doc' – supposedly, this file contains an invite list, as well as the information about the venue and time at which the event will take place. However, the '.doc' file is a decoy, and it is meant to execute a corrupted script that will deploy the Emotet Trojan to vulnerable computers.

Remember never to download unknown files from email attachments, even if their purpose seems trustworthy at first – cybercriminals use a wide range of social engineering tricks to get you to perform the actions they want. It is recommended to keep your PC protected by using the services offered by professional anti-virus software.