VB Blog

Malicious CCleaner update points to a major weakness in our infrastructure

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 18, 2017

Researchers from Cisco Talos have found that a recent version of the widely used CCleaner tool installed malware on the machine.

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Despite the profitability of ransomware there is a good reason why mining malware is thriving

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 15, 2017

Though ransomware is far more profitable than using a compromised PC to mine bitcoins, the global distribution of malware means that there are many botnets for which mining is the most efficient way to extract money out of a PC.

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VB2017 preview: Crypton - exposing malware's deepest secrets

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 14, 2017

We preview the VB2017 paper by Julia Karpin and Anna Dorfman (F5 networks), in which they present a tool to decrypt encrypted parts of malware.

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VB2017 preview: Hacktivism and website defacement: motivations, capabilities and potential threats

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 13, 2017

We preview the VB2017 paper by Marco Romagna and Niek Jan van den Hout (The Hague University of Applied Sciences), in which they thoroughly analyse the motivations and modus operandy of hacktivists.

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Three questions to ask about security product bypasses

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 13, 2017

Proof-of-concepts for bypasses of security products always sound scary, but how seriously should we take them? VB Editor Martijn Grooten lists three questions one should ask about any such bypass to determine how serious a threat it represents.

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VB2017: WHOIS and EICAR Small Talks added

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 12, 2017

Today, we announce two more 'Small Talks' for the VB2017 programme. In one of them, Neil Schwarzman will discuss the consequences of the GDPR for WHOIS and abuse research, while the other will be hosted by three members of EICAR, who will discuss its work on a trustworthiness strategy and minimum standard.

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VB2017: nine last-minute papers announced

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 11, 2017

From attacks on Ukraine's power grid to web shells, and from car hacking to ransomware: we announce the first nine 'last-minute' papers on the VB2017 programme.

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Patching is important even when it only shows the maturity of your security process

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 5, 2017

A lot of vulnerabilities that are discovered are never exploited in the wild. It is still important to patch them though.

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Massive data breach confirms what you already knew: you are getting spam

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 4, 2017

A security researcher found more than 700 million email addresses stored on a server used by a spam botnet, which gives us some insight into what the email lists used by spammers look like.

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VB2017 preview: State of cybersecurity in Africa: Kenya

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 4, 2017

We preview the VB2017 presentation by Tyrus Kamau (Euclid Security), who will talk about the state of cybersecurity in Africa, with a particular focus on his home country, Kenya.

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VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Ilya Rabinovich and Randy Abrams about their research, Windows 8 security, and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Ilya Rabinovich and Randy Abrams about their research, Windows 8 security, and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/speaker-spotlight-rabinovich-abrams/

Are Gmail's new advertisements in breach of CAN-SPAM?

Marketers upset about 'emails' that you can't unsubscribe from.
Marketers upset about 'emails' that you can't unsubscribe from. A debate is happening among (anti-)spam experts on whether Gmail's new way of displaying advertisements is in breach… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/are-gmail-s-new-advertisements-breach-can-spam/

Thousands of websites affected by nameserver hijack redirecting visitors to malware

DNS caching causes attack to have a long tail.
DNS caching causes attack to have a long tail. Yesterday, visitors to thousands of Dutch websites were served an 'under construction' page that, through a hidden iframe, was… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/thousands-websites-affected-nameserver-hijack-redirecting-visitors-malware/

Firefox 17 zero-day exploit targets users of Tor network

Visitors to child abuse websites likely target of operation, but will there be collateral damage?
Visitors to child abuse websites likely target of operation, but will there be collateral damage? A zero-day exploit in Firefox 17 that was probably used to track the visitors to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/firefox-17-zero-day-exploit-targets-users-tor-network/

There is no 'I know what I am doing' trump card in security

NSA activities could make millions avoid US-based services.
NSA activities could make millions avoid US-based services. We have all been there. To continue the product you're working on, you need to get some extra permission: a port needs… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/there-no-i-know-what-i-am-doing-trump-card-security/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Mark Kennedy and Igor Muttik about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Mark Kennedy and Igor Muttik about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/speaker-spotlight-kennedy-muttik/

August

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/

August issue of VB published

The August issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The August issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The August 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/august-issue-vb-published/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Axelle Apvrille and Karine de Pontevès about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Axelle Apvrille and Karine de Pontevès about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-apvrille-de-ponteves/

Is publishing your employees' email addresses such a big deal?

Beware of a false sense of security.
Beware of a false sense of security. Security blogger Graham Cluley points to hypocrisy in a KPMG press release in which it criticises FTSE 350 companies for 'leaking data that can… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/publishing-your-employees-email-addresses-such-big-deal/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Carsten Willems and Ralf Hund about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Carsten Willems and Ralf Hund about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-willems-hund/

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/

IETF discusses deprecation of IPv6 fragmentation

Little-used feature could have unintended security consequences.
Little-used feature could have unintended security consequences. As the Internet is (very) slowly migrating towards IPv6, researchers are reconsidering a little-used feature that… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/ietf-discusses-deprecation-ipv6-fragmentation/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

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

July issue of VB published

The July issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The July issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The July 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or download… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/july-issue-vb-published/

July

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenter Andreas Lindh about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenter Andreas Lindh about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/speaker-spotlight-lindh/

Compromised Yahoo! accounts continue to spread Android malware

Problem likely to be on Yahoo!'s side.
Problem likely to be on Yahoo!'s side. In recent weeks, we have noticed an uptick in the amount of spam sent from compromised Yahoo! accounts; we have reasons to believe the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/compromised-yahoo-accounts-continue-spread-android-malware/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Lysa Myers and David Harley about their research interests and what they aim to bring to the conference.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Lysa Myers and David Harley about their research interests and what they aim to bring to the conference. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/speaker-spotlight-harley-myers/

Facebook temporarily blocks access from Tor

Malicious activity triggered automatic lockdown.
Malicious activity triggered automatic lockdown. A 'high volume of malicious activity across Tor exit nodes' is believed to have been the reason why Facebook temporarily blocked… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/facebook-temporarily-blocks-access-tor/

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