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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Search blog

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

January

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

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/

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/

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/

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/

New VB Spam Supplement

VB plans to present a selection of news and articles on spam and anti-spam techniques - some technical, some ethical, some relating to real-world experiences of dealing with spam.
VB plans to present a selection of news and articles on spam and anti-spam techniques - some technical, some ethical, some relating to real-world experiences of dealing with spam.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/11/new-vb-spam-supplement/

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