Posted by Virus Bulletin on Aug 2, 2013
We speak to VB2013 presenters Mark Kennedy and Igor Muttik about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin, with an exciting programme that covers many of today's most pertinent security-related topics.
In the build-up to the event we are running a series of blogs in which we introduce the speakers and find out a bit more about their research interests and what they aim to bring to the conference.
Today we speak to Mark Kennedy and Igor Muttik, who will speak at VB2013 about the IEEE clean file metadata exchange.
Tell us a little bit about yourself - your job and your responsibilities.
Mark: "I work on Symantec's automated sample signature systems, as well as some of our in-field heuristics. I am also Symantec's liaison to the IEEE Industry Connections Security Group, and Chair of both the Executive Committee as well as the Malware Working Group. I also serve on the Board of Directors for the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO)."
Igor: "I am a Principal Research Architect at McAfee and focus on designing protection for the mobile ecosystem, university research and interacting with my colleagues at Intel. I am also a member of CARO and also represent McAfee at IEEE."
Can you give us a brief outline of what you will be speaking about at VB2013?
Mark: "The IEEE, through the cooperation of security vendors, has developed a system to collect and distribute metadata for clean files in real time. This will aid in the creation of new heuristics as well as the reduction of false positives."
Igor: "Multiple AV companies have jointly developed a system capable of aggregating meta-data about clean files. The first version of this CMX framework is now ready. It can assist in reducing the risk of false alarms produced by security software."
Why is your presentation particularly relevant to the security community?
Mark: "Whitelists are more important now than ever before, with more and more cloud-based and heuristic-based technologies. Timely whitelist data (generated before files can appear on customer machines) will help to improve the overall ecosystem."
Igor: "False positives are a big problem and the CMX system can help here."
What can delegates learn from your presentation?
Igor: "All VB delegates would benefit from learning about how to reap the benefits of CMX - either as a consumer and/or as a submitter."
What other presentations are you looking forward to?
Igor: "In particular, I'm looking forward to seeing the papers on Android obfuscation, in-app advertising and meta-analysis of malware tests."
Mark: "I'm looking forward to the AMTSO presentation on the Real-Time Threat List and the McAfee team's presentation 'Real-world testing, the good, the bad, and the ugly'."
Have you visited Berlin before? What are you looking forward to seeing/doing whilst in town?
Mark: "Yes, I've visited the city before. I would recommend visiting the Berlin wall, of course, and Checkpoint Charlie. I'm looking forward to networking at the conference."
Mark Kennedy and Igor Muttik will present 'IEEE clean file metadata exchange' at 16:20 on Wednesday 2 October.
The full programme for VB2013, including abstracts for each paper, can be viewed here.
Read more about why you should attend VB2013 - and download our letter templates as a guide for justifying to your budget holder why you should attend VB2013.
VB2013 takes place 2-4 October 2013 in Berlin, Germany - online registration is now open - we'd love to see you there!
Posted on 2 August 2013 by Helen Martin
