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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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/

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