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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April

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/04/

New sentencing, new legislation

United States Sentencing Commission gets busy...
United States Sentencing Commission gets busy... The United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) — the body tasked with refining the sentencing portions of new legislation — met… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/04/new-sentencing-new-legislation/

Shrinking violets

Consolidation in the anti-spam industry
Consolidation in the anti-spam industry A report released by Gartner last month predicts consolidation in the anti-spam industry and a rapid contraction of the pool of anti-spam… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/04/shrinking-violets/

Patent for Postini

Postini wins U.S. patent for email filtering
Postini wins U.S. patent for email filtering Managed email security company Postini has been granted a U.S. patent for email filtering technology.According to the patent, any… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/03/patent-postini/

Roll up, roll up

AOL raffles spammer's Porsche
AOL raffles spammer's Porsche Taking a new angle on hitting spammers where it hurts, AOL is offering its members the opportunity to win a luxury car seized as part of a court… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/03/roll-roll/

New kid on the certification block

CheckVir starts certification program
CheckVir starts certification program At the start of this year, CheckVir became the latest independent organisation to offer certification for anti-virus products, when the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/03/new-kid-certification-block/

A bit of R&R

Man. Loves. His. Spam. No really.
Man. Loves. His. Spam. No really. Some choose Yoga, others choose a glass of wine and a soak in a hot bath, and some, apparently, choose reading spam as their preferred method of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/03/bit-r-amp-r/

News summary

AMD introduces hardware-level AV protection
AMD introduces hardware-level AV protection AMD has launched its new Athlon 64 FX processor at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany. Aimed primarily at the PC gamer market,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/03/news-summary/

ISPs refile lawsuits

AOL and EarthLink refile suits against spammers
AOL and EarthLink refile suits against spammers US Internet service providers AOL and EarthLink have each refiled lawsuits against prolific spammers. A Florida man and married… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/03/isps-refile-lawsuits/

March

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/03/

Fine for dialler spam

UK watchdog fines US company for sending spam
UK watchdog fines US company for sending spam A UK watchdog has fined a US company for sending spam. The fine was imposed by the UK's regulatory body for the premium rate… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/03/fine-dialler-spam/

SMS spam goes down Down Under

Anti-spam code of conduct proves successful
Anti-spam code of conduct proves successful Australia's Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman reports that a code of conduct aimed at preventing SMS spam has been highly… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/03/sms-spam-goes-down-down-under/

Errata: Windows NT comparative review

After re-testing, Alwil's AVAST! product gains a VB 100% award.
After re-testing, Alwil's AVAST! product gains a VB 100% award. The results were reviewed for two products in the Windows NT comparative review (VB February 2004, p.12), with the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/02/errata-windows-nt-comparative-review/

China sets deadline for spammers

China blacklists offending IP addresses
China blacklists offending IP addresses The Internet Society of China's Anti-Spam Coordination Team (ASCT) has published a blacklist of mail servers sending spam. The list… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/02/china-sets-deadline-spammers/

Plans, acquisitions and royalty

NAI makes plans, Symantec acquires software manufacturer, Sophos receives royal visitors
NAI makes plans, Symantec acquires software manufacturer, Sophos receives royal visitors Network Associates Inc. (NAI) has unveiled plans to provide its customers with information… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/02/plans-acquisitions-and-royalty/

Gigabyte arrested

Well known female virus writer arrested. Finally.
Well known female virus writer arrested. Finally. Last month the Belgian Federal Crime Unit reported that they had arrested and questioned the virus writer known as 'Gigabyte'.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/02/gigabyte-arrested/

More core wars

Virus vs virus - new Welchia variant seeks to destroy Mydoom.
Virus vs virus - new Welchia variant seeks to destroy Mydoom. Today we can say our goodbyes to Mydoom.A - which is programmed to stop spreading on today's date, 12 February 2004.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/02/more-core-wars/

News summary

Why technical writing is best left to technical journalists, Netcraft monitors SCO, and February's VB magazine
Why technical writing is best left to technical journalists, Netcraft monitors SCO, and February's VB magazine There is yet another great rant on the ZDNet website. Josh Mehlman… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/02/news-summary/

February

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/02/

An end to 419 spam?

Nigerian government takes action.
Nigerian government takes action. Fed up of the stigma that 419 email scammers bring to Nigeria's reputation and keen to build investor confidence in the country, Nigeria's… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/end-419-spam/

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