VB Blog

VB2016 video: Last-minute paper: Malicious proxy auto-configs: an easy way to harvest banking credentials

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 30, 2017

In a VB2016 last-minute presentation, Jaromír Horejší and Jan Širmer looked at Retefe, a trojan that has targeted banks in several European countries and used malicious proxy auto-config filesto redirect users' traffic to a server controlled by the attackers. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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WannaCry shows we need to understand why organizations don't patch

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 17, 2017

Perhaps the question we should be asking about WannaCry is not "why do so many organizations allow unpatched machines to exist on their networks?" but "why doesn't patching work reasonably well most of the time?"

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Modern security software is not necessarily powerless against threats like WannaCry

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 15, 2017

The WannaCry ransomware has affected many organisations around the world, making it probably the worst and most damaging of its kind. But modern security is not necessarily powerless against such threats.

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Throwback Thursday: CARO: A personal view

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 11, 2017

This week sees the 11th International CARO Workshop taking place in Krakow, Poland – a prestigious annual meeting of anti-malware and security experts. As a founding member of CARO, Fridrik Skulason was well placed, in August 1994, to shed some light on the organization, to explain in detail CARO's main activities and functions, as well as the reasons behind its strict membership regulations.

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VB2016 paper: Uncovering the secrets of malvertising

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 10, 2017

Malicious advertising, a.k.a. malvertising, has evolved tremendously over the past few years to take a central place in some of today’s largest web-based attacks. It is by far the tool of choice for attackers to reach the masses but also to target them with infinite precision and deliver such payloads as ransomware. Today, we publish a paper presented at VB2016 in Denver by Malwarebytes researchers Jérôme Segura and Chris Boyd, in which they look at the advertising ecosystem, how it is used, and at what techniques are being utilised to spread malware

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Throwback Thursday: Tools of the DDoS Trade

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 4, 2017

As DDoS attacks become costlier to fix and continue to increase in both number and diversity, we turn back the clock to 2000, when Aleksander Czarnowski took a look at the DDoS tools of the day.

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VB2016 paper: Building a local passiveDNS capability for malware incident response

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 4, 2017

At VB2016, Splunk researchers Kathy Wang and Steve Brant presented a Splunk app that can be used to locally collect passive DNS data. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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VB2016 video: Last-minute paper: A malicious OS X cocktail served from a tainted bottle

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 28, 2017

In a VB2016 last-minute presentation, ESET researchers Peter Kalnai and Martin Jirkal looked at the OS X malware threats KeRanger and Keydnap, that both spread through a compromised BitTorrent client. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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Consumer spyware: a serious threat with a different threat model

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 25, 2017

Consumer spyware is a growing issue and one that can have serious consequences: its use is increasingly common in domestic violence. But do our threat models consider the attacker with physical access to, and inside knowledge of the victim?

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VB2016 paper: Debugging and monitoring malware network activities with Haka

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 24, 2017

In their VB2016 paper, Stormshield researchers Benoît Ancel and Mehdi Talbi introduced Haka, an open-source language to monitor, debug and control malicious network traffic. Both their paper and the video recording of their presentation are now available to read/view on www.virusbulletin.com.

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December

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/12/

December issue of VB published

The December issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The December issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The December 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/12/december-issue-vb-published/

Spamhaus CIO calls for those running open DNS resolvers to be fined

Open DNS resolvers instrumental in many DDoS attacks.
Open DNS resolvers instrumental in many DDoS attacks. At the Cyber Security Summit in London, Richard Cox, CIO of DNS blacklist provider Spamhaus, called on the UK government to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/spamhaus-cio-calls-those-running-open-dns-resolvers-be-fined/

Privilege escalation vulnerability targets Windows XP and Server 2003

Vulnerability being used in the wild in combination with exploit of patched Adobe Reader vulnerability.
Vulnerability being used in the wild in combination with exploit of patched Adobe Reader vulnerability. Researchers at FireEye have discovered a new privilege escalation… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/privilege-escalation-vulnerability-targets-windows-xp-and-server-2003/

There is a place for unauthenticated key exchange, but don't tell anyone

Making dragnet surveillance harder justifies using weak form of encryption.
Making dragnet surveillance harder justifies using weak form of encryption. Discussions on how to make the Internet more secure have been going on ever since the first two… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/there-place-unauthenticated-key-exchange-don-t-tell-anyone/

NCA issues alert on CryptoLocker ransomware

Malware demands $1,000 ransom to decrypt files.
Malware demands $1,000 ransom to decrypt files. This weekend, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) issued an alert about the 'CryptoLocker' ransomware - following a similar alert… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/nca-issues-alert-cryptolocker-ransomware/

Industry suffers loss of great researcher

Untimely death of Peter Ször sends shockwaves across anti-malware community.
Untimely death of Peter Ször sends shockwaves across anti-malware community. We were shocked and saddened to learn, yesterday, of the sudden and unexpected death of security… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/industry-suffers-loss-great-researcher/

'123456' may be an adequate password to protect nothing

Are we giving users the right kind of advice when it comes to password security?
Are we giving users the right kind of advice when it comes to password security? A recent data-breach at Adobe has shown once again that a lot of users choose the most trivial of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/123456-may-be-adequate-password-protect-nothing/

Good and bad news for victims of targeted attacks against Microsoft products

Bug bounty program extended; TIFF zero-day used in the wild.
Bug bounty program extended; TIFF zero-day used in the wild. This week, Microsoft has good news and bad news for those targeted by zero-day exploits in its products. The bad… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/good-and-bad-news-victims-targeted-attacks-against-microsoft-products/

November

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/

November issue of VB published

The November issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The November issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The November 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/november-issue-vb-published/

Open letter asks AV companies for openness on surveillance malware

Old issue has become hot topic again following Snowden revelations.
Old issue has become hot topic again following Snowden revelations. A group of experts in privacy and digital rights has sent an open letter (pdf) to a number of anti-virus… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/10/open-letter-asks-av-companies-openness-surveillance-malware/

Php.net compromised to serve malware

Researchers initially believed Google warning was a false positive.
Researchers initially believed Google warning was a false positive. For a few days this week, the popular php.net website was serving malware to some of its visitors and was doing… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/10/php-net-compromised-serve-malware/

Should software vendors extend support for their products on Windows XP?

Is Google making the Internet more or less secure by extending support for Chrome on XP?
Is Google making the Internet more or less secure by extending support for Chrome on XP? A software vendor's decision to release updates to its product is generally seen as a good… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/10/should-software-vendors-extend-support-their-products-windows-xp/

October

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/10/

October issue of VB published

The October issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The October issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The October 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/10/october-issue-vb-published/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenter Methusela Ferrer about her research interests and what she aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenter Methusela Ferrer about her research interests and what she aims to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place next week (2-4 October) in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/speaker-spotlight-ferrer/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenter Jarno Niemela about APTs and about what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenter Jarno Niemela about APTs and about what he aims to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place next week (2-4 October) in Berlin, with an… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/speaker-spotlight-niemela/

Tens of thousands of fake Twitter accounts passed off and sold as 'followers'

After initial takedown, more efforts put into making new fake accounts look genuine.
After initial takedown, more efforts put into making new fake accounts look genuine.Virus Bulletin's research into a scam selling fake Twitter accounts being passed off as… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/tens-thousands-fake-twitter-accounts-passed-and-sold-followers/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenter Rowland Yu about Android malware, his research interests, and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenter Rowland Yu about Android malware, his research interests, and what he aims to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place next month (2-4… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/09/speaker-spotlight-yu/

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