Posted by Virus Bulletin on Sep 13, 2013
We speak to VB2013 presenter Sergey Golovanov about business-to-government malware.
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 Sergey Golovanov, who will speak at VB2013 about business-to-government malware.
Tell us a little bit about yourself - your job and your responsibilities.
"I've worked at Kaspersky Lab for about eight years and right now I'm a malware expert in our Global Research and Analysis Team. My responsibilities include malware threat research and participation in high-profile projects such as Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame, etc.; developing new anti-malware techniques and the design and implementation of new infrastructure in Kaspersky Lab products like Safe Money; and writing analytics and supporting our global public relations teams with modern threats such as TDL4."
Can you give us a brief outline of what you will be speaking about at VB2013?
"My presentation will be about malware that has been created by private companies to support law enforcement agencies. This topic is very exciting because it shows a trend of legitimizing malware creation in several countries and the dangerous consequences of these actions. I will present technical details of the functionalities of two main pieces of malware, their propagation via zero-days, and I will tell a several interesting stories connected with these 'projects'."
Why is your presentation particularly relevant to the security community?
"There are threats that can collect private data, steal money, take full control of computers and smart phones or even blow up factories in the modern Internet. But I will talk about malware that threatens the physical freedom of victims."
What can delegates learn from your presentation?
"Delegates will learn how to recognize this particular threat and some options for how to react to it because it is not regular piece malware but can be considered as a targeted attacks provided by governments and law enforcement agencies."
What other presentations are you looking forward to?
"I'm interested in the 'Pentesting with live malware' and 'Statistically effective protection against APT attacks' presentations because I think this should help me to learn more about these threats and ways of dealing with them."
What are you looking forward to about your visit to Berlin and the VB conference in general?
"I'm looking forward to the beer and schnaps - and to making new contacts, catching up with colleagues and the additional knowledge about malware and cyber threats that I may have missed in the past."
Sergey Golovanov will present 'Hacking Team and Gamma International in 'business-to-government malware'' at 14:30 on Friday 4 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 13 September 2013 by Helen Martin
