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

Congressional attack on inboxes

US Congressional representatives send bulk email
US Congressional representatives send bulk email While congratulating themselves for (supposedly) stemming the flow of spam with the passage of the CAN-SPAM anti-spam… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/congressional-attack-inboxes/

MyDoom, YourDoom, OurDoom

SCO offers a bounty for the arrest of the MyDoom author, Bruce Perens offers a conspiracy theory...
SCO offers a bounty for the arrest of the MyDoom author, Bruce Perens offers a conspiracy theory... SCO is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the author… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/mydoom-yourdoom-ourdoom/

Divine intervention

AV on a spiritual level
AV on a spiritual level We all know how quickly time flies when we're having fun, or when there's a deadline looming, but a recent news report on the Asian news website Channel… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/divine-intervention/

Waiting, reflecting and removing

Microsoft reports success of Blaster removal tool
Microsoft reports success of Blaster removal tool While young Romanian virus author Dan Dumitru Ciobanu awaited trial by a Romanian court last month for releasing a variant of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/waiting-reflecting-and-removing/

News summary...

Blaster (variant) author charged, AhnLab warns against complacency, India launches CERT-In, more on monoculture, and what's new in the spam world...
Blaster (variant) author charged, AhnLab warns against complacency, India launches CERT-In, more on monoculture, and what's new in the spam world... In much the same way that the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/news-summary/

Email coaching for marketers

DMA releases quick-glance reference guide for email marketers.
DMA releases quick-glance reference guide for email marketers. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has released a quick-glance reference guide for marketers entitled 'The CAN… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/email-coaching-marketers/

Ahnlab partners with Sina.com

Ahnlab gets major ASP deal in China.
Ahnlab gets major ASP deal in China. Ahnlab has acquired a major stepping-stone into the Chinese domestic market, according to an article published by the Korea Herald, by… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/ahnlab-partners-sina-com/

Security-conscious processors

AMD and Intel prep technology to prevent buffer overflows at the hardware level.
AMD and Intel prep technology to prevent buffer overflows at the hardware level. IT news site Silicon.com has published an article about hardware security in CPUs to prevent… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/security-conscious-processors/

Weekend round-up

Narrowband blues, 2004 predictions, VeriSign scuttles Symantec, Dloader/Xombie
Narrowband blues, 2004 predictions, VeriSign scuttles Symantec, Dloader/Xombie It's been a busy few days as 2004 starts to get into full swing. VB has a roundup of the weekend's… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/weekend-round/

January

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/01/

2004

Latest news from the anti-virus industry provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
NewsJanuary issue released The Virus Bulletin January 2005 issue is on its way. 23 December 2004Latest VGrep The latest version of the virus name lookup tool - VGrep, is now… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2004/

US and UK spam legislation in place

Anti-spam legislation in place.
Anti-spam legislation in place. While the 'CAN-SPAM Act' is expected to have been signed into US law by 1 January 2004, December 2003 saw the introduction of anti-spam… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/12/us-and-uk-spam-legislation-place/

Number crunching

Calculating the average cost of a virus attack - estimates or guesstimates?
Calculating the average cost of a virus attack - estimates or guesstimates? This month has seen a flurry of the traditional end-of-year predictions for the security challenges in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/12/number-crunching/

SAS - the SysAsmin Service?

Computer security experts prepare to become special constables.
Computer security experts prepare to become special constables. A set of proposals for tackling computer crime has been published by UK Parliamentary lobby group EURIM and the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/12/sas-sysasmin-service/

SpamCop snapped up

IronPort Systems to purchase SpamCop
IronPort Systems to purchase SpamCop According to the IDG News Service, email security hardware manufacturer IronPort Systems Inc. is set to announce its purchase of anti-spam… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/12/spamcop-snapped/

Seasonal spamming

Increase in spam in lead up to holiday season.
Increase in spam in lead up to holiday season. A recent study carried out by Corvigo, suggests that the volume of spam in our inboxes showed a marked increase over the lead up to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/12/seasonal-spamming/

December

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/12/

VB2004 call for papers

Virus Bulletin calls for all speakers papers.
Virus Bulletin calls for all speakers papers. full article Posted on 05 January 2004 by Virus Bulletin https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/11/call-papers/

The menace within

Is BitDefender really staffed by Romanian vampire hackers...?
Is BitDefender really staffed by Romanian vampire hackers...? A recent report by the Associated Press claims that 'computer-savvy Romanians are fast emerging as a bold menace in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/11/menace-within/

Unanimous vote for CAN-SPAM Act

US Senate approves federal anti-spam legislation.
US Senate approves federal anti-spam legislation. The US Senate has approved the first federal anti-spam legislation. The 'CAN-SPAM Act' was approved by Senate in a unanimous… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/11/unanimous-vote-can-spam-act/

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