VB Blog

Throwback Thursday: The Politics of Anti-Virus

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Nov 10, 2016

President-elect of the United States Donald Trump made a number of promises about cybersecurity during his electoral campaign. What comes of those pledges remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: there will be a team of hard-working, dedicated individuals working behind the scenes to protect the computer systems of Federal government agencies, as there have been for years. Back in 1999, VB published a report describing a day in the life of the Affiliated Computer Services Government Solutions Group (ACS GSG) - the group responsible for providing full service computer support to US Federal government agencies across the United States.

Read more  

VB2016 paper: The TAO of Automated Iframe Injectors - Building Drive-by Platforms For Fun

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Oct 18, 2016

We publish Aditya K. Sood's VB2016 paper on the use of iframe injectors by cybercriminals to deliver drive-by downloads.

Read more  

“Cybersecurity is, at its core, a people problem,” says VB2016 keynote speaker

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 26, 2016

An interview with VB2016’s keynote speaker Christine Whalley - Director, Governance and IT Risk Management at Pfizer

Read more  

Throwback Thursday: Following the Breadcrumbs

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Sep 22, 2016

In 1999, Christine Orshesky described how one large organization decided to find out how and where the viruses within it were being obtained so it could do more to protect its networks.

Read more  

VB2016 preview: Cryptography mistakes in malware

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 15, 2016

At VB2016, two talks will discuss mistakes made by malware authors in cryptographic implementations. Ben Herzog and Yaniv Balmas will present a paper in which they look at a number of these mistakes, while Malwarebytes researcher hasherezade will present a last-minute paper on making use of some of these mistakes to crack ransomware.

Read more  

GPS technology is more at risk from cyber attack than ever before, security expert demonstrates at VB2016

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 14, 2016

Next month at VB2016, HPE Security's Oleg Petrovsky will speak about attacks on GPS. We conducted a short interview with Oleg and asked him about GPS, about the conference, and about his ultimate dinner party.

Read more  

BSides Denver: Join and Support the Security Community

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 13, 2016

If you are coming to VB2016 in Denver, why not spend an extra day in the Mile-High City and join the free BSides Denver conference, which takes place on Saturday?

Read more  

VB2016 'Last-Minute' Papers Announced

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 13, 2016

We are excited to announce the addition of the "last-minute" papers to the VB2016 programme: nine presentations covering hot research topics, from OS X attacks to exotic APTs, breaking ransomware and the current state of BGP.

Read more  

VB2016 preview: Debugging and Monitoring Malware Network Activities with Haka

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 12, 2016

In a VB2016 paper, Stormshield researchers Benoit Ancel and Mehdi Talbi will present a paper on Haka, a tool that can be used to monitor and debug malware's network communications.

Read more  

Paper: Behavioural Detection and Prevention of Malware on OS X

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 12, 2016

In a new paper published through Virus Bulletin, Vincent Van Mieghem presents a novel method for detecting malware on Mac OS X, based on the system calls used by malicious software.

Read more  

Search blog

VB2014 preview: Labelling spam through the analysis of protocol patterns

Andrei Husanu and Alexandru Trifan look at what TCP packet sizes can teach us.
Andrei Husanu and Alexandru Trifan look at what TCP packet sizes can teach us.In the weeks running up to VB2014 (the 24th Virus Bulletin International Conference), we will look at… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/preview-labelling-spam-through-analysis-protocol-patterns/

VB2014 preview: Optimized mal-ops. Hack the ad network like a boss

Researchers Vadim Kotov and Rahul Kashyap to discuss how advertisements are the new exploit kits.
Researchers Vadim Kotov and Rahul Kashyap to discuss how advertisements are the new exploit kits.In the weeks running up to VB2014 (the 24th Virus Bulletin International… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/preview-optimized-mal-ops-hack-ad-network-boss/

Guest blog: Cyber insurance, is it for you?

Sorin Mustaca looks at how companies trading online can insure the risks they run.
Sorin Mustaca looks at how companies trading online can insure the risks they run.Throughout its 25 year history, Virus Bulletin has regularly published technical analyses of the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/guest-blog-cyber-insurance-it-you/

Google to take tough stance on homoglyph attacks

Good idea, but unlikely to have a huge impact.
Good idea, but unlikely to have a huge impact. Ever since internationalized domain names (IDNs) were introduced in the last decade, allowing people to use non-ASCII characters in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/google-take-tough-stance-homoglyph-attacks/

VB2014 preview: P0wned by a barcode

Fabio Assolini to speak about malware targeting boletos.
Fabio Assolini to speak about malware targeting boletos.In the weeks running up to VB2014, we will look at some of the research that will be presented at the conference. In the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/preview-p0wned-barcode/

Paper: Inside the iOS/AdThief malware

75,000 jailbroken iOS devices infected with malware that steals ad revenues.
75,000 jailbroken iOS devices infected with malware that steals ad revenues. Believing that the device or operating system you use reduces your chance of being affected by malware… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/paper-inside-ios-adthief-malware/

$83k in bitcoins 'stolen' through BGP hijack

Short-lived network changes used to make miners connect to rogue pool.
Short-lived network changes used to make miners connect to rogue pool. Researchers at Dell SecureWorks have discovered an operation that used BGP hijacking to force bitcoin miners… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/83k-bitcoins-stolen-through-bgp-hijack/

Report: 15 solutions achieve VBSpam award

Despite short spike, image spam no problem for spam filters.
Despite short spike, image spam no problem for spam filters. Good news for those who need to run a spam filter (in other words: everyone who runs a mail server). For the second… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/report-15-solutions-achieve-vbspam-award/

Researchers release CryptoLocker decryption tool

Tool uses private keys found in database of victims.
Tool uses private keys found in database of victims.Please note: this blog post was written in August 2014 and refers to a particular kind of encryption-ransomware that was active… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/researchers-release-cryptolocker-decryption-tool/

Paper: IcoScript: using webmail to control malware

RAT gets instructions from Yahoo Mail address.
RAT gets instructions from Yahoo Mail address. One of the big challenges for malicious actors in operating a RAT (remote administration tool) is how to control the malware and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/paper-icoscript-using-webmail-control-malware/

August

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/

Paper: Learning about Bflient through sample analysis

Flexible module-handling mechanism allows malware to adjust functionalities at will.
Flexible module-handling mechanism allows malware to adjust functionalities at will. The history of the 'Bflient' worm goes back to the discovery of its first variants in June… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/07/paper-learning-about-bflient-through-sample-analysis/

Report: VB100 comparative review on Windows 7

29 out of 35 tested products earn VB100 award.
29 out of 35 tested products earn VB100 award. The various changes at Virus Bulletin mean that things are busier than ever in our office. Still, behind the scenes we continue to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/07/report-comparative-review-windows-7/

Call for last-minute papers for VB2014 announced

Seven speaking slots waiting to be filled with presentations on 'hot' security topics.
Seven speaking slots waiting to be filled with presentations on 'hot' security topics. Earlier this year, we announced the programme for VB2014: three days filled with excellent… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/07/call-last-minute-papers-announced/

Paper: Mayhem - a hidden threat for *nix web servers

New kind of malware has the functions of a traditional Windows bot, but can act under restricted privileges in the system.
New kind of malware has the functions of a traditional Windows bot, but can act under restricted privileges in the system. One of the main trends in malware in recent years is a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/07/paper-mayhem-hidden-threat-nix-web-servers/

Google's Project Zero to hunt for zero-days

Bugs to be reported to the vendor only, and to become public once patched.
Bugs to be reported to the vendor only, and to become public once patched.Google has created a new team, called Project Zero, whose task is to find vulnerabilities in any kind of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/07/google-s-project-zero-hunt-zero-days/

Paper: API-EPO

Raul Alvarez studies the unique EPO methodology used by the W32/Daum file infector.
Raul Alvarez studies the unique EPO methodology used by the W32/Daum file infector. A few months ago, we published an article by Fortinet's Raul Alvarez on the Expiro file… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/07/paper-api-epo/

Paper: Not old enough to be forgotten: the new chic of Visual Basic 6

Marion Marschalek looks at two Miuref binaries: one packed with Visual Basic 6 and one with C++.
Marion Marschalek looks at two Miuref binaries: one packed with Visual Basic 6 and one with C++. Two months ago, Microsoft announced it had added 'Miuref' to its Malicious Software… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/07/paper-not-old-enough-be-forgotten-new-chic-visual-basic-6/

Paper: VBA is not dead!

Gabor Szappanos looks at the resurgence of malicious VBA macros that use social engineering to activate.
Gabor Szappanos looks at the resurgence of malicious VBA macros that use social engineering to activate.Macro malware had long been assumed dead. After all, macros are disabled by… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/07/paper-vba-not-dead/

'Cyber attack on hedge fund' turns out to be internal 'scenario' used by BAE Systems

Story that appeared to be taken from fiction turns out... to have been fiction.
Story that appeared to be taken from fiction turns out... to have been fiction. Two weeks after BAE Systems reported its technicians had thwarted an attack against hedge fund… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/07/cyber-attack-hedge-fund-turns-out-be-internal-scenario-used-bae-systems/

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.