Posted by Martijn Grooten on Sep 28, 2018
The Virus Bulletin Conference is first and foremost a place to learn: about new threats, about the tools used to detect and fight them, and to learn about (and get to know) the people that matter in the fast-changing world of threat intelligence and research.
This year, you can also learn about some essential techniques that are important for any cybersecurity researcher: kernel-mode malware analysis, Android reverse engineering, and AI in cybersecurity.
Dynamic manual analysis of kernel-mode malware
Though analysis of the vast majority of malware samples found these days is fully automated, manual analysis remains essential for those important and often more interesting edge cases. Cisco Talos researcher Vanja Svajcer, a regular VB speaker, will teach the audience how to perform dynamic manual analysis of kernel-mode malware, in particular using WinDbg.
Vanja says attendees will benefit from the hands-on examples if they are able to bring a laptop set up with Windows debugging tools.
Android reverse engineering
Android malware has become a serious and varied threat in recent years, and thus a workshop by Fortinet researcher Axelle Apvrille (also a regular VB speaker) on Android malware analysis is an exciting addition to the programme. Her workshop is, as the title suggests, 'for the brave', and will consists of several guided labs to cover subjects such as dealing with obfuscated samples and writing Radare2 scripts.
For this workshop, it will be necessary to bring a laptop that has been prepared by following these instructions.
Artificial intelligence in cybersecurity
Finally, artificial intelligence is a hot topic in security and beyond, and it is a particular focus of the city of Montreal that hosts VB2018. It is thus fitting that Benoît Hamelin, from local company Element AI, will host a workshop on AI and how it support efforts towards solving certain classes of cybersecurity problems.
To benefit from Benoît's hands-on examples, participants are recommended to bring a laptop in order to use the cloud-based Colaboratory.
All three workshops last 90 minutes and take place in the Small Talks room. No special registration or additional payment is required, but you must, of course, be registered for VB2018 itself!
