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.

Read more  

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?"

Read more  

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.

Read more  

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.

Read more  

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

Read more  

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.

Read more  

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.

Read more  

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.

Read more  

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?

Read more  

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.

Read more  

Search blog

Same old, same old

Virus writers plead stupidity...
Virus writers plead stupidity... Just days after his creation made its first appearance in the Wild, the suspected author of the Iraqi war-themed W32/Ganda worm has been tracked… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/04/same-old-same-old/

Security in the classroom

Microsoft supporting secure code initiative at University of Leeds
Microsoft supporting secure code initiative at University of Leeds Microsoft seems to be taking security education seriously these days. The software company has pledged support -… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/04/security-classroom/

April

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/04/

Lighter sentences for virus writers?

A US report claims that sentences for computer-related crimes are too harsh.
A US report claims that sentences for computer-related crimes are too harsh. The USA's largest group of defence lawyers has backed a report claiming that sentences for… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/03/lighter-sentences-virus-writers/

March

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/03/

Anti-virus for Lindows

Lindows teams up with Central Command to sell Linux anti-virus - a step in the right direction, but perhaps not far enough...
Lindows teams up with Central Command to sell Linux anti-virus - a step in the right direction, but perhaps not far enough... Of the Linux distributions, Lindows is possibly the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/02/anti-virus-lindows/

Symantec press release backfires

Watch out for your marketing department...
Watch out for your marketing department... It makes a change to be reporting on the under-hyping of a virus threat, rather than the usual story of anti-virus companies… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/02/symantec-press-release-backfires/

VB2003 programme announced

Details of the VB2003 conference programme announced ...
Details of the VB2003 conference programme announced ... Details of the VB2003 conference programme have been announced and are available online.VB2003 will host more than 30… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/02/programme-announced/

Calling all speakers

Submit your papers for VB2003 now!
Submit your papers for VB2003 now! Virus Bulletin has extended the deadline for submissions from those wishing to present at VB2003, the Thirteenth Virus Bulletin International… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/02/calling-all-speakers/

Standing up for free speech

NAI lands itself a hefty fine...
NAI lands itself a hefty fine... Network Associates Inc. (NAI) has landed itself a hefty fine to start the new year after a New York court ruled against the company last month in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/02/standing-free-speech/

Two years for three viruses

Author of Gokar, Redesi and Admirer jailed for two years.
Author of Gokar, Redesi and Admirer jailed for two years. Simon Vallor, a 22-year-old web designer from Wales, who pleaded guilty to creating and distributing a trio of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/02/two-years-three-viruses/

February

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/02/

Virus writers get a helping hand

Two organizations send viruses to mailing list subscribers...
Two organizations send viruses to mailing list subscribers... Despite the recent conviction of Welsh Wiccan Simon Vallor, for writing and distributing three mass-mailing viruses,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/01/virus-writers-get-helping-hand/

W32/B(e)agle

VB predicts: 'Beagle's bark worse than its bite', 'Beware of Bagles in the morning', 'The Beagle has landed', ad nauseam.
VB predicts: 'Beagle's bark worse than its bite', 'Beware of Bagles in the morning', 'The Beagle has landed', ad nauseam. At first glance, W32/Bagle.A is not a particularly… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/01/w32-b-e-agle/

News summary...

Trend estimates $5b virus damage in 2003, monoculture blues, Symantec 'reels from week of mishaps', more MiMail, and more...
Trend estimates $5b virus damage in 2003, monoculture blues, Symantec 'reels from week of mishaps', more MiMail, and more... Trend Micro kicks off today's news summary with an… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/01/news-summary/

RIAA worm

RIAA allegedly buying worms to stop P2P piracy
RIAA allegedly buying worms to stop P2P piracy It would appear Gobbles Security has done it again, only this time under the guidance of everyone's favourite dark corporation, the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/01/riaa-worm/

Microsoft rights management

What digital and information rights management may mean for the industry.
What digital and information rights management may mean for the industry. Microsoft is frequently accused of being a hive of lax security, but the company has been very public… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/01/microsoft-rights-management/

Anti anti anti

NAI buys DeerSoft Inc., manufacturer of SpamAssassin Pro - confusion assured ...
NAI buys DeerSoft Inc., manufacturer of SpamAssassin Pro - confusion assured ... In what seems certain to be a growing trend in the anti-virus industry, and following in the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/01/anti-anti-anti/

Lessons to be Learned

Proving that mistakes can happen to us all, it seems that W32/Winevar.A was not the only virus 'story' to have arisen from the AVAR 2002 conference in Korea.
Proving that mistakes can happen to us all, it seems that W32/Winevar.A was not the only virus 'story' to have arisen from the AVAR 2002 conference in Korea. It seems that… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/01/lessons-be-learned/

A Happy New Year

In a cheery end-of-year message, mi2g has made ten security predictions for 2003.
In a cheery end-of-year message, mi2g has made ten security predictions for 2003. In a cheery end-of-year message, mi2g has made ten security predictions for 2003. Amongst… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2003/01/happy-new-year/

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.