BRATISLAVA — June 3, 2025 — ESET, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, is proud to announce its recognition as a “Notable Provider” in Forrester’s recently released The Managed Detection and Response Services in Europe Landscape, Q2 2025 report. The report provides an overview of 26 MDR providers and serves as a strategic guide for security and risk (S&R) professionals seeking to navigate the evolving European MDR landscape.

As outlined in the report*, Forrester defines MDR services as: “Services that augment extended detection and response (XDR) tools with telemetry from network, identity, cloud, APIs, applications, and other log sources to produce high-fidelity detections, conduct investigations, support remote incident response, enable security automation, initiate threat hunts to identify adversaries that circumvent security controls, and help improve their clients’ overall security posture.”

In our view, ESET´s inclusion in the report underscores its growing influence in the European cybersecurity market and reaffirms the company’s commitment to delivering high-quality, proactive threat detection and response capabilities.

“We are proud to be recognized by Forrester as a Notable Provider in the European MDR landscape,” said Michal Jankech, Vice President, Enterprise & SMB/MSP, at ESET. “For us, this acknowledgment is a testament to the relentless dedication of our global teams and our unwavering commitment to protecting organizations across Europe with cutting-edge, resilient cybersecurity solutions. As the threat landscape becomes increasingly complex and adversaries more sophisticated, we believe that MDR must evolve beyond traditional detection and response. At ESET, we are focused on delivering intelligent and cost-effective services that not only detect threats but also empower organizations to respond with speed, precision, and confidence.”

The European MDR market is becoming increasingly competitive and mature, leading customers to demand better services at lower costs. To stay competitive, providers are innovating with their offerings and pricing. As a consequence, S&R professionals will have a wide range of provider options to consider. The Forrester report identifies three major dynamics shaping the MDR market in Europe, all of which align closely with ESET’s MDR offerings:

• European firms consider XDR an essential capability: ESET’s XDR-enabling solution delivers comprehensive, transparent threat visibility and response across endpoints, networks, and applications. Backed by over 30 years of cybersecurity innovation, it combines multilayered protection, intelligent automation, and expert-level customization.
• AI helps fill talent gaps in detection, but not response: Complemented by expert insights, ESET effectively integrates AI into its MDR offerings through ESET AI Advisor. This tool delivers real-time, personalized threat insights, simplifies complex data for all skill levels, and boosts efficiency by automating routine tasks—empowering faster, smarter threat response.
• Niche regional providers leverage localization and specialization to compete with dominant players: Leveraging its Central European roots, ESET delivers highly localized, regulation-aligned cybersecurity solutions across EMEA.

*Forrester: The Managed Detection And Response Services In Europe Landscape, Q2 2025. Tope Olufon with Jinan Budge, Min Say, Angela Lozada, Bill Nagel. May 1, 2025

Discover more about ESET MDR services and XDR solutions. The full report is available to Forrester clients with a valid subscription or for purchase.

Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity here.

• ESET Research has been tracking Danabot’s activity since 2018 as part of a global effort that resulted in a major disruption of the malware’s infrastructure.
• While primarily developed as an infostealer, Danabot also has been used to distribute additional malware, including ransomware.
• Danabot’s authors promote their toolset through underground forums and offer various rental options to potential affiliates.
• This ESET Research analysis covers the features used in the latest versions of the malware, the authors’ business model, and an overview of the toolset offered to affiliates.
• Poland, Italy, Spain and Turkey are historically one of the most targeted countries by Danabot.

BRATISLAVA, PRAGUE — May 22, 2025 — ESET has participated in a major infrastructure disruption of the notorious infostealer, Danabot, by the US Department of Justice, the FBI, and US Department of Defense’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service. U.S. agencies were working closely with Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt, the Netherlands’ National Police, and the Australian Federal Police . ESET took part in the effort alongside Amazon, CrowdStrike, Flashpoint, Google, Intel471, PayPal, Proofpoint, Team Cymru and Zscaler. ESET Research, which has been tracking Danabot since 2018, contributed assistance that included providing technical analysis of the malware and its backend infrastructure, as well as identifying Danabot’s C&C servers. During that period, ESET analyzed various Danabot campaigns all over the world, with Poland, Italy, Spain and Turkey historically being one of the most targeted countries. The joint takedown effort also led to the identification of individuals responsible for Danabot development, sales, administration, and more.

These law enforcement operations were conducted under Operation Endgame — an ongoing global initiative aimed at identifying, dismantling, and prosecuting cybercriminal networks. Coordinated by Europol and Eurojust, the operation successfully took down critical infrastructure used to deploy ransomware through malicious software.

“Since Danabot has been largely disrupted, we are using this opportunity to share our insights into the workings of this malware-as-a-service operation, covering the features used in the latest versions of the malware, the authors’ business model, and an overview of the toolset offered to affiliates. Apart from exfiltrating sensitive data, we have observed that Danabot is also used to deliver further malware, which can include ransomware, to an already compromised system,” says ESET researcher Tomáš Procházka, who investigated Danabot.

The authors of Danabot operate as a single group, offering their tool for rental to potential affiliates, who subsequently employ it for their malicious purposes by establishing and managing their own botnets. Danabot’s authors have developed a vast variety of features to assist customers with their malevolent motives. The most prominent features offered by Danabot include: the ability to steal various data from browsers, mail clients, FTP clients, and other popular software; keylogging and screen recording; real-time remote control of the victims’ systems; file grabbing (commonly used for stealing cryptocurrency wallets); support for Zeus-like webinjects and form grabbing; and arbitrary payload upload and execution. Besides utilizing its stealing capabilities, ESET Research has observed a variety of payloads being distributed via Danabot over the years.  Furthermore, ESET has encountered instances of Danabot being used to download ransomware onto already compromised systems.

In addition to typical cybercrime, Danabot has also been used in less conventional activities such as utilizing compromised machines for launching DDoS attacks… for example, a DDoS attack against Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Throughout its existence, according to ESET monitoring, Danabot has been a tool of choice for many cybercriminals and each of them has used different means of distribution. Danabot’s developers even partnered with the authors of several malware cryptors and loaders, and offered special pricing for a distribution bundle to their customers, helping them with the process.  Recently, out of all distribution mechanisms ESET observed, the misuse of Google Ads to display seemingly relevant, but actually malicious, websites among the sponsored links in Google search results stands out as one of the most prominent methods to lure victims into downloading Danabot. The most popular ploy is packing the malware with legitimate software and offering such a package through bogus software sites or websites falsely promising users to help them find unclaimed funds. The latest addition to these social engineering techniques are deceptive websites offering solutions for fabricated computer issues, whose only purpose is to lure victims into execution of a malicious command secretly inserted into the user’s clipboard.

The typical toolset provided by Danabot’s authors to their affiliates includes an administration panel application, a backconnect tool for real-time control of bots, and a proxy server application that relays the communications between the bots and the actual C&C server. Affiliates can choose from various options to generate new Danabot builds, and it’s their responsibility to distribute these builds through their own campaigns.

“It remains to be seen whether Danabot can recover from the takedown. The blow will, however, surely be felt, since law enforcement managed to unmask several individuals involved in the malware’s operations,” concludes Procházka.

For technical overview of Danabot and insight into its operation, check out ESET Research blogpost: “Danabot: Analyzing a fallen empire” on WeLiveSecurity.com. Make sure to follow ESET Research on Twitter (today known as X), BlueSky, and Mastodon for the latest news from ESET Research.

Worldwide Danabot detections as seen in ESET telemetry since 2018

Example of typical Danabot infrastructure