VB Blog

Paying a malware ransom is bad, but telling people never to do it is unhelpful advice

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 26, 2016

The current ransomware plague is one of the worst threats the Internet has seen and it is unlikely to go away any time soon. But telling people to never pay the ransom is unhelpful advice.

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VB2015 paper: VolatilityBot: Malicious Code Extraction Made by and for Security Researchers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 22, 2016

In his VB2015 paper, Martin Korman presented his 'VolatilyBot' tool, which extracts malicious code from packed binaries, leveraging the functionality of the Volatility Framework.

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VB2016 programme announced, registration opened

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 21, 2016

We have announced 37 papers (and four reserve papers) that will be presented at VB2016 in Denver, Colorado, USA in October. Registration for the conference has opened; make sure you register before 1 July to benefit from a 10% early bird discount.

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New tool helps ransomware victims indentify the malware family

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 15, 2016

The people behind the MalwareHunterTeam have released a tool that helps victims of ransomware identify which of more than 50 families has infected their system, something which could help them find a tool to decrypt their files.

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It's fine for vulnerabilities to have names — we just need not to take them too seriously

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 13, 2016

The PR campaign around the Badlock vulnerability backfired when it turned out that the vulnerability wasn't as serious as had been suggested. But naming vulnerabilities can actually be helpful and certainly shouldn't hurt.

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Throwback Thursday: The Number of the Beasts

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Apr 7, 2016

The Virus Bulletin Virus Prevalence Table, which ran from 1992 until 2013, gave users a regular snapshot of what was really going on in the virus (and later malware) world, recording the number of incidents of each virus reported to VB in the preceding month. In August 2000, Denis Zenkin, a self-confessed virus prevalence table junkie, shared his findings following a study of the virus prevalence tables over the preceding few years, allowing him to determine the top ten viruses of the period, the top viruses by type and the viruses of the year.

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Paper: All Your Meetings Are Belong to Us: Remote Code Execution in Apache OpenMeetings

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 30, 2016

Security researcher Andreas Lindh recently found a vulnerability in Apache OpenMeetings that could allow remote code execution on a vulnerable server. Andreas reported the vulnerability to the OpenMeetings developers and, once it had been patched, he wrote up the details.

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Throwback Thursday: 'In the Beginning was the Word...'

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Mar 24, 2016

Word and Excel’s internal file formats used to be something in which few were interested – until macro viruses came along and changed all that. In 1996, Andrew Krukov provided an overview of the new breed of viruses.

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VB2016 Call for Papers Deadline

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 18, 2016

You have until the early hours (GMT) of Monday 21 March to submit an abstract for VB2016! The VB2016 programme will be announced in the first week of April.

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How broken is SHA-1 really?

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 15, 2016

SHA-1 collisions may be found in the next few months, but that doesn't mean that fake SHA-1-based certificates will be created in the near future. Nevertheless, it is time for everyone, and those working in security in particular, to move away from outdated hash functions.

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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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