VB Blog

48 hours after initial reports, many mysteries remain around the latest ransomware/wiper threat

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jun 29, 2017

Whether you call it Petya, NotPetya, Nyetya or Petna, there are still many mysteries surrounding the malware that has been causing havoc around the world.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jun 28, 2017

This week, the Early Bird discount for VB2017 comes to an end - so, for a 10% saving on the cost of full price registration, make sure you register now!

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jun 23, 2017

Last year, Kaspersky Lab researcher Santiago Pontiroli and PwC's Bart Parys presented a VB2016 paper analysing the malicious threats faced by users of the Steam online gaming platform, and highlighting how organized criminals are making money with these profitable schemes. Today, we publish the paper.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jun 22, 2017

Researchers at Cisco have published a paper describing how it may be possible to use machine learning to distinguish malware command-and-control traffic using TLS from regular enterprise traffic, and to classify malware families based on their encrypted C&C traffic.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jun 20, 2017

After five years of exploitation in a wide variety of attacks, CVE-2012-0158 may have found a successor in CVE-2017-0199, which is taking the Office exploit scene by storm.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jun 19, 2017

Virus Bulletin was a proud sponsor of BSides London 2017 - Martijn Grooten reports on a great event.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jun 15, 2017

It is well known that the problem of cybersecurity is a global one that affects users worldwide - but it's also one that has some unique local flavours. With speakers representing at least 24 countries, VB2017 is one of the most international security conferences on the circuit, allowing attendees to hear the viewpoints of experts from around the world. Register before 1 July and receive a 10% Early Bird discount.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jun 12, 2017

Qakbot or Qbot, is a banking trojan that makes the news every once in a while and was the subject of a VB2016 paper by Intel Security researchers Sanchit Karve, Guilherme Venere and Mark Olea. In it, they provided a detailed analysis of the Pinkslipbot/Qakbot trojan and its then latest campaign. Their full paper is now available to download or read online.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jun 2, 2017

VB Editor Martijn Grooten reviews Finn Brunton's book 'Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet'.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jun 1, 2017

Virus Bulletin is proud to be a Silver sponsor of BSides London next week; we look forward to the event and to meeting many security professionals.

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WireX DDoS botnet takedown shows the best side of the security industry

Collaboration between a number of security companies has led to the takedown of the WireX Android DDoS botnet. Efforts like these, and the fact that the companies involved all decided to publish the very same blog post, show the best side of the security …
It is easy to be cynical about the security industry and its tendency to make ever bigger mountains out of molehills, but behind a thin layer of marketing, there are a great many… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/08/wirex-ddos-botnet-takedown-shows-best-side-security-industry/

Mostly blocked, but still good enough: Necurs sending pump-and-dump spam

The Necurs botnet has started sending pump-and-dump spam. Almost all of these emails are blocked by spam filters, yet the stock price still increased.
Over the past few days, the Necurs spam botnet has increased its activity, sending large amounts of pump-and-dump spam, in which a cheap stock is pushed with the aim of making a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/03/mostly-blocked-still-good-enough-necurs-sending-pump-and-dump-spam/

Conference review: Botconf 2016

Three members of the Virus Bulletin team attended the Botconf 2016 conference in Lyon, France last month, enjoying talks on subjects that ranged from state-sponsored attacks to exploit kits, and from banking trojans to cyber insurance.
This review was written by Martijn Grooten, Adrian Luca and Ionuț Răileanu. Though still only in its fourth year, Botconf has become one of the Virus Bulletin team's favourite… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/conference-review-botconf-2016/

More on the Moose botnet at Botconf

At Botconf 2016 this week, GoSecure researchers Masarah Paquet-Clouston and Olivier Bilodeau presented their research on the Moose botnet - something Olivier Bilodeau previously spoke about at VB2015.
This week, several members of the Virus Bulletin team are attending Botconf 2016 in Lyon, France. Security conferences provide good opportunities to meet fellow researchers and to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/more-moose-botnet-botconf/

Paper: a timeline of mobile botnets

Ruchna Nigam provides an overview of more than 60 mobile malware families.
Ruchna Nigam provides an overview of more than 60 mobile malware families. The rise of mobile malware is still a relatively recent thing, with the first actual mobile botnets not… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/paper-timeline-mobile-botnets/

VB2014 paper: Caphaw - the advanced persistent pluginer

Micky Pun and Neo Tan analyse the banking trojan that is best known for spreading through Skype.
Micky Pun and Neo Tan analyse the banking trojan that is best known for spreading through Skype.Since the close of the VB2014 conference in Seattle in October, we have been sharing… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/paper-caphaw-advanced-persistent-pluginer/

Coordinated action takes down Ramnit botnet infrastructure

Malware remains present on infected machines; 2012 Virus Bulletin paper worth studying.
Malware remains present on infected machines; 2012 Virus Bulletin paper worth studying. A coordinated action from Anubisnetworks, Microsoft and Symantec, together with Europol has… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/02/coordinated-action-takes-down-ramnit-botnet-infrastructure/

VB2014 paper: Hiding the network behind the network. Botnet proxy business model

Cristina Vatamanu and her colleagues describe how botherders keep their C&C servers hidden.
Cristina Vatamanu and her colleagues describe how botherders keep their C&C servers hidden.Over the next few months, we will be sharing VB2014 conference papers as well as video… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/10/paper-hiding-network-behind-network-botnet-proxy-business-model/

Paper: Prosecting the Citadel botnet - revealing the dominance of the Zeus descendent: part two

Aditya K. Sood and Rohit Bansal study the malware's behaviour when ran on a physical machine.
Aditya K. Sood and Rohit Bansal study the malware's behaviour when ran on a physical machine. Last week, we published the first part of the paper 'Prosecting the Citadel botnet -… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/paper-prosecting-citadel-botnet-revealing-dominance-zeus-descendent-part-two/

Paper: Prosecting the Citadel botnet - revealing the dominance of the Zeus descendent: part one

Aditya K. Sood and Rohit Bansal dissect botnet primarily used for financial fraud.
Aditya K. Sood and Rohit Bansal dissect botnet primarily used for financial fraud. It is unlikely that anyone still thinks that cybercrime is performed by 16-year-old kids who… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/paper-prosecting-citadel-botnet-revealing-dominance-zeus-descendent-part-one/

Game over for GameOver Zeus botnet?

Coordinated effort against gang that's also behind CryptoLocker ransomware.
Coordinated effort against gang that's also behind CryptoLocker ransomware. A large, coordinated effort involving law enforcement, security vendors and various security… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/06/game-over-gameover-zeus-botnet/

Updated botnet likely cause of surge in Tor traffic

New Tor version should help the network deal with increased traffic.
New Tor version should help the network deal with increased traffic. Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words: The graph shows the daily number of users of the Tor… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/updated-botnet-likely-cause-surge-tor-traffic/

Kelihos checks machines' IP addresses against DNS blacklists

Role of node in a botnet dependent on whether the IP address is blacklisted.
Role of node in a botnet dependent on whether the IP address is blacklisted. Whenever I look at the results of the VBSpam tests, it always amazes me how large a percentage of spam… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/kelihos-checks-machines-ip-addresses-against-dns-blacklists/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to James Wyke about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to James Wyke about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin, with an exciting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-wyke/

Latest VBSpam tests show web host spam harder to block

Most filters see a small increase in their catch rates overall.
Most filters see a small increase in their catch rates overall. The results of VB's latest spam filter test show that the spam sent from web hosts is significantly harder to block… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/latest-vbspam-tests-show-web-host-spam-harder-block/

Ruby on Rails vulnerability exploited in the wild

Code executed on web servers to cause them to join IRC botnet.
Code executed on web servers to cause them to join IRC botnet. A critical vulnerability in Ruby on Rails is currently being exploited to make web servers join an IRC botnet, Ars… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/05/ruby-rails-vulnerability-exploited-wild/

German anti-botnet advisory recommends the use of ad blockers for security

'If websites want to include ads, they must make sure they are secure.'
'If websites want to include ads, they must make sure they are secure.' In an open letter to several prominent German websites, Botfrei, the German anti-botnet advisory centre, has… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/05/german-anti-botnet-advisory-recommends-use-ad-blockers-security/

Grum botnet's command-and-control servers shut down

Spam-sending botnet believed to be third largest in the world.
Spam-sending botnet believed to be third largest in the world. International co-operation between a number of parties has led to all command-and-control servers of the 'Grum'… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2012/07/grum-botnet-s-command-and-control-servers-shut-down/

New Zeus/SpyEye botnet does away with command-and-control servers

Increasing use of UDP to avoid communication tracking.
Increasing use of UDP to avoid communication tracking. Researchers at Symantec have discovered a new parallel build of Zeus (also known as Zbot) and SpyEye that appears to be… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2012/02/new-zeus-spyeye-botnet-does-away-command-and-control-servers/

Compromised websites used to mine bitcoins

In-the-browser botnet turns victims' CPU cycles into cash for the attackers.
In-the-browser botnet turns victims' CPU cycles into cash for the attackers. Researchers have discovered a compromised website where a piece of JavaScript has been included that is… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/12/compromised-websites-used-mine-bitcoins/

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