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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Search blog

Hormel halts Spam King in his tracks

No 'Spam King' clothing line for Richter.
No 'Spam King' clothing line for Richter. Infamous spammer Scott Richter, aka the 'Spam King', has fallen at the first hurdle in his bid to launch a 'Spam King'-branded clothing… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/06/hormel-halts-spam-king-his-tracks/

DIY do not spam

Chicago businessman takes matters into his own hands
Chicago businessman takes matters into his own hands Chicago businessman Rocky Mosele has created his own 'do not spam' list. Fed up of the disruptive effect spam was having on… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/06/diy-do-not-spam/

June

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/06/

Taiwanese Trojan writer arrested

Suspect not a teenager for a change.
Suspect not a teenager for a change. A Taiwanese engineer has been arrested on suspicion of creating a Trojan horse. Earlier this week, 30-year-old Wang Ping-an was apprehended… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/taiwanese-trojan-writer-arrested/

German government spammed

Government email systems overwhelmed
Government email systems overwhelmed Barely a month after Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) put forward proposals for tough new sanctions for spammers, the German… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/german-government-spammed/

Legislation: NZ makes a move

New Zealand government moves toward anti-spam legislation
New Zealand government moves toward anti-spam legislation The government of New Zealand has signalled its intention to bring in anti-spam legislation. A discussion paper released… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/legislation-nz-makes-move/

Cajun spammer tells it like it is

Straight talking spammer
Straight talking spammer A prolific emailer (read spammer) has told the US Senate Commerce Committee that, although the 30 million email messages he sends out each day comply… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/cajun-spammer-tells-it-it/

Spend, spend, spend for Symantec

Anti-spam company to become AV vendor's latest purchase
Anti-spam company to become AV vendor's latest purchase Just days after revealing that its gateway anti-virus product will stop sending automatic virus notification 'spam' - a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/spend-spend-spend-symantec/

No rest for German police

Arrest of suspected Sasser author, arrest of suspected Phatbot author and questioning of five more suspects - all within the space of 7 days.
Arrest of suspected Sasser author, arrest of suspected Phatbot author and questioning of five more suspects - all within the space of 7 days. The German authorities have been busy… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/no-rest-german-police/

Buying and selling

Trend buys back shares, Sybari prepares to sell
Trend buys back shares, Sybari prepares to sell Trend Micro's board of directors has announced plans to repurchase some of the company's shares from the market. The company will… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/buying-and-selling/

SpamCop at receiving end of a restraining order

Venerable spam reporting outfit SpamCop has had a restraining order granted against it on behalf of alleged spammer OptInRealBig.com.
Venerable spam reporting outfit SpamCop has had a restraining order granted against it on behalf of alleged spammer OptInRealBig.com. Venerable spam reporting outfit SpamCop has… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/spamcop-receiving-end-restraining-order/

Spam on the catwalk

Spammer extraordinaire launches own clothing line
Spammer extraordinaire launches own clothing line Scott Richter, spammer extraordinaire, is set to launch his own clothing line, according to Newsday . The man who brought to our… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/spam-catwalk/

Law and order

Spamming set to become illegal in the Netherlands and other legislative news...
Spamming set to become illegal in the Netherlands and other legislative news... Spamming is about to become illegal in The Netherlands, after the upper house of the Dutch… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/law-and-order/

Figures and fluctuations

Dips, increases and the cost of dealing with spam
Dips, increases and the cost of dealing with spam While the term 'spam' celebrated its tenth birthday last month, MessageLabs reported a decline in the volume of spam seen in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/figures-and-fluctuations/

NAI reverts to McAfee

Network Associates Inc. (NAI) to streamline and adopt (not so) new name.
Network Associates Inc. (NAI) to streamline and adopt (not so) new name. In a bid to reduce costs and increase productivity, Network Associates, Inc. (NAI) has announced plans to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/nai-reverts-mcafee/

Call for papers: AVAR 2004

AVAR calls for papers
AVAR calls for papers AVAR (the Association of anti-Virus Asia Researchers) has issued a call for papers for AVAR 2004 in Tokyo, which will take place 25-26 November 2004 in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/call-papers-avar-2004/

May

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/05/

Symantec vulnerabilities

eEye reports four new Symantec vulnerabilities
eEye reports four new Symantec vulnerabilities eEye Digital Security has reported that it has discovered four new vulnerabilities affecting Symantec products. Products affected… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/04/symantec-vulnerabilities/

Business news

Acquisitions and new product lines
Acquisitions and new product lines UK-based web and email filtering company SurfControl revealed plans last month to acquire California-based email security firm MessageSoft Inc.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/04/business-news/

No bull?

Eset vs. BullGuard
Eset vs. BullGuard Recently it was brought to VB’s attention that affiliates of BullGuard have been cruising in the slipstream of Eset’s NOD32 product range. Visitors to the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/04/no-bull/

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