TrickBot rises to top threat in February, overtaking Emotet in Check Point’s new index. A massive malicious spam campaign, along with the global takedown of Emotet, has vaulted the TrickBot trojan to the top of the Check Point’s list of the most popular malware among cybercriminals for February. In January, TrickBot was ranked third on Check Point’s list, and it was fourth overall for 2020, while the No. 1 malware, Emotet, remained ascendant. But following the worldwide law-enforcement effort to take down Emotet in January, cybercriminals have pivoted to TrickBot, the report explained. Both strains are most often used as first-stage loaders for fetching additional malware.