VB Blog

VB2019 preview: A study of Machete cyber espionage operations in Latin America

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 22, 2019

Researchers from the Czech Technical University in Prague will present a very comprehensive overview of the Machete APT group.

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AfricaHackon 2019: a great event and a reminder that security is global

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 19, 2019

Last week, VB Editor Martijn Grooten travelled to the Kenyan capital Nairobi to speak at the 6th edition of the AfricaHackon event.

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Virus Bulletin researcher discovers new Lord exploit kit

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 5, 2019

Still in-development kit thus far only targets Flash Player vulnerabilities

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VB2019 call for last-minute papers opened

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 29, 2019

The call for last-minute papers for VB2019 is now open. Submit before 1 September to have your abstract considered for one of the nine slots reserved for 'hot' research.

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Nominations opened for sixth Péter Szőr Award

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 4, 2019

Virus Bulletin is seeking nominations for the sixth annual Péter Szőr Award.

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Haroon Meer and Adrian Sanabria to deliver VB2019 closing keynote

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 25, 2019

New additions to the VB2019 conference programme include a closing keynote address from Thinkst duo Haroon Meer and Adrian Sanabria and a talk on attacks against payment systems.

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Free VB2019 tickets for students

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 21, 2019

Virus Bulletin is excited to announce that, thanks to generous sponsorship from Google Android, we are able to offer 20 free tickets to students who want to attend VB2019.

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VB2018 paper: Lazarus Group: a mahjong game played with different sets of tiles

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 4, 2019

The Lazarus Group, generally linked to the North Korean government, is one of the most notorious threat groups seen in recent years. At VB2018 ESET researchers Peter Kálnai and Michal Poslušný presented a paper looking at the group's various campaigns. Today, we publish their paper and the recording of their presentation.

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Book your VB2019 ticket now for a chance to win a ticket for BSides London

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   May 29, 2019

Virus Bulletin is proud to sponsor this year's BSides London conference, which will take place next week, and we have a number of tickets to give away.

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First 11 partners of VB2019 announced

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   May 15, 2019

We are excited to announce the first 11 companies to partner with VB2019, whose support will help ensure a great event.

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Save the dates: VB2018 to take place 3-5 October 2018

Though the location will remain a secret for a few more months, we are pleased to announce the dates for VB2018, the 28th Virus Bulletin International Conference.
While we hope that you have already circled the dates of 4-6 October 2017 in your agendas, and that you will join us and security experts from around the world for VB2017 in Spain… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/save-dates-vb2018-take-place-3-5-october-2018/

Review: BSides Athens 2017

The second edition of BSides Athens saw a great and varied programme presented in the Greek capital. VB's Martijn Grooten was pleased to attend.
BSides London has been a regular fixture on the Virus Bulletin agenda for the past few years, but its international audience (thanks to the event being held in parallel with… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/review-bsides-athens-2017/

Let's not help attackers by spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt

Spreading 'FUD' in the wake of cyber-attacks is never a good idea. But it's even worse when this might be one of the attackers' implicit goals.
A week and a half after the outbreak of (Not)Petya, we are still not 100% certain about the motivation of the attackers. Was it a (failed) attempt to extort money from a large… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/lets-not-help-attackers-spreading-fear-uncertainty-and-doubt/

Calling next-gen security researchers: student discount for VB2017 announced

For the third year in a row, we have set aside a limited number of student tickets for the Virus Bulletin conference, to allow 'next-generation' security researchers to experience one of the most important gatherings of security researchers around the wor…
Next-gen firewalls, next-gen anti-virus. At Virus Bulletin, we follow the 'next-gen' trends with interest, if only because behind the marketing there is often very interesting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/calling-next-gen-security-researchers-student-discount-vb2017-announced/

Nominations opened for fourth Péter Szőr Award

Virus Bulletin has opened nominations for the fourth annual Péter Szőr Award, for the best piece of technical security research published between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017.
Virus Bulletin is seeking nominations for the fourth annual Péter Szőr Award. The award was inaugurated during the VB2014 conference, in honour of late security researcher and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/nominations-opened-fourth-peter-szor-award/

VB2016 paper: BlackEnergy – what we really know about the notorious cyber attacks

According to some researchers, there is some evidence linking the recent (Not)Petya attacks with the BlackEnergy group - which became infamous for its targeted attacks against the Ukraine. At VB2016, ESET researchers Anton Cherepanov and Robert Lipovsky s…
In a blog post published on Friday, ESET researcher Anton Cherepanov provides evidence linking last week's (Not)Petya attacks to the BlackEnergy group; Kaspersky researchers also… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/vb2016-paper-blackenergy-what-we-really-know-about-notorious-cyber-attacks/

Security advice in the wake of WannaCry and Not(Petya)

As WannaCry and (Not)Petya have shown, malware attacks can do a lot of damage. So is staying safe just a case of following good security advice?
The recent outbreaks of WannaCry and (Not)Petya have left many users and organizations understandably confused about what to do and how to fend off such attacks. Thankfully,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/security-advice-wake-wannacry-and-notpetya/

48 hours after initial reports, many mysteries remain around the latest ransomware/wiper threat

Whether you call it Petya, NotPetya, Nyetya or Petna, there are still many mysteries surrounding the malware that has been causing havoc around the world.
"What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet" Shakespeare's philosophising can equally be applied to malware, and whether you call it… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/48-hours-after-initial-reports-many-mysteries-around-latest-ransomwarewiper-threat-remain/

VB2017 Early Bird discount to expire this week

This week, the Early Bird discount for VB2017 comes to an end - so, for a 10% saving on the cost of full price registration, make sure you register now!
"Hundreds of businesses, both large and small, have suffered from the handiwork of the virus writers. It is now clear that a sabotage mentality exists and new computer viruses… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/vb2017-early-bird-discount-expire-week/

VB2016 paper: Steam stealers: it's all fun and games until someone's account gets hijacked

Last year, Kaspersky Lab researcher Santiago Pontiroli and PwC's Bart Parys presented a VB2016 paper analysing the malicious threats faced by users of the Steam online gaming platform, and highlighting how organized criminals are making money with these p…
The online games market is huge, and the Steam platform is a huge player in that market. Users registered on the Steam platform use their credit cards to buy content, and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/vb2016-paper-steam-stealers-its-all-fun-and-games-until-someones-account-gets-hijacked/

Research paper shows it may be possible to distinguish malware traffic using TLS

Researchers at Cisco have published a paper describing how it may be possible to use machine learning to distinguish malware command-and-control traffic using TLS from regular enterprise traffic, and to classify malware families based on their encrypted C…
Researchers at Cisco have published a paper (PDF) describing how it may be possible to use machine learning to distinguish malware command-and-control (C&C) traffic using TLS from… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/research-paper-shows-it-may-be-possible-distinguish-malware-traffic-using-tls/

Is CVE-2017-0199 the new CVE-2012-0158?

After five years of exploitation in a wide variety of attacks, CVE-2012-0158 may have found a successor in CVE-2017-0199, which is taking the Office exploit scene by storm.
There are two good reasons not to be concerned about CVE-2012-0158, an RTF handling vulnerability in Microsoft Office. First, the vulnerability was patched more than five years… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/cve-2017-0199-new-cve-2012-0158/

Review: BSides London 2017

Virus Bulletin was a proud sponsor of BSides London 2017 - Martijn Grooten reports on a great event.
This month, for the first time in its 28-year history, Virus Bulletin became the sponsor of another industry conference: BSides London. I have to admit to having been more than a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/review-bsides-london-2017/

VB2017: one of the most international security conferences

It is well known that the problem of cybersecurity is a global one that affects users worldwide - but it's also one that has some unique local flavours. With speakers representing at least 24 countries, VB2017 is one of the most international security con…
The 40 talks confirmed thus far for the VB2017 conference programme will be delivered by speakers that are based in 18 different countries across five continents. If you also… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/vb2017-one-most-international-security-conferences/

VB2016 paper: Diving into Pinkslipbot's latest campaign

Qakbot or Qbot, is a banking trojan that makes the news every once in a while and was the subject of a VB2016 paper by Intel Security researchers Sanchit Karve, Guilherme Venere and Mark Olea. In it, they provided a detailed analysis of the Pinkslipbot/Qa…
Pinkslipbot, also known as Qakbot or Qbot, is a banking trojan that makes the news every once in a while, yet never seems to get the attention of the world's Zbots and Dridexes. I… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/vb2016-paper-diving-pinkslipbots-latest-campaign/

Book review: Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet

VB Editor Martijn Grooten reviews Finn Brunton's book 'Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet'.
This review, by VB Editor Martijn Grooten, was originally published in the Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICON). It is republished with… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/book-review-spam-shadow-history-internet/

Virus Bulletin to sponsor BSides London

Virus Bulletin is proud to be a Silver sponsor of BSides London next week; we look forward to the event and to meeting many security professionals.
When VB'91, the inaugural Virus Bulletin conference, took place (in 1991), there were few security conferences on the scene and there were more virus researchers than computer… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/virus-bulletin-sponsor-bsides-london/

VB2016 video: Last-minute paper: Malicious proxy auto-configs: an easy way to harvest banking credentials

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 attack…
"Much media attention is given to imminent and visible threats, like ransomware. Other threats remain under the radar and often go unnoticed." This part of Jaromír Horejší and Jan… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/may/vb2016-video-last-minute-paper-malicious-proxy-auto-configs-easy-way-harvest-banking-credentials/

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