VB Blog

Paper: New Keylogger on the Block

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 5, 2016

In a new paper published by Virus Bulletin, Sophos researcher Gabor Szappanos takes a look at the KeyBase keylogger, sold as a commercial product and popular among cybercriminals who use it in Office exploit kits.

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BSides Denver to take place the day after VB2016

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 28, 2016

VB2016, the 26th International Virus Bulletin conference, is an excellent reason to go to Denver, Colorado in the first week of October. But there is another reason to come to Denver: BSides Denver, which will take place the day after VB2016, on Saturday 8 October 2016.

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VB2015 paper: DDoS Trojan: A Malicious Concept that Conquered the ELF Format

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jun 13, 2016

In their VB2015 paper, Peter Kálnai and Jaromír Hořejší look at the current state of DDoS trojans forming covert botnets on unsuspecting systems. The paper provides a technical analysis of the most important malware families, focusing on infection methods, dynamic behaviour, C&C communication, obfuscation techniques, advanced methods of persistence and stealth, and elimination of rivals.

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Throwback Thursday: Hyppönen, that Data Fellow / Finnish Sprayer

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Jun 2, 2016

This week, well known and universally respected industry guru Mikko Hyppönen celebrates his 25th anniversary of working at F-Secure (formerly known as Data Fellows). VB takes a look back in the archives at two articles published in 1994: an "insight" into the life and work of the then rising star of the anti-virus world, and a virus analysis penned by the man himself.

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VB2015 paper: Economic Sanctions on Malware

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Jun 1, 2016

Financial pressure can be a proactive and potentially very effective tool in making our computer ecosystems safer. By cleverly employing various trust metrics and technologies such as digital signing, watermarking, and public-key infrastructure in strategically selected places, we can encourage good behaviours and punish bad ones. In his VB2015 paper, Igor Muttik analyses and gives examples of technologies (certificates, credentials, etc.) to de-incentivize bad behaviours in several ecosystems (Windows, Android, iOS).

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Virus Bulletin's job site for recruiters and job seekers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 26, 2016

Virus Bulletin has relaunched its security job vacancy service and added a new section, in which job seekers can advertise their skills and experience.

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Throwback Thursday: One_Half: The Lieutenant Commander?

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 26, 2016

In October 1994, a new multi-partite virus appeared, using some of the techniques developed by the Dark Avenger in Commander_Bomber. As if this were not enough, the One_Half virus could also encrypt vital parts of the fixed disk. Eugene Kaspersky provided a detailed analysis.

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Advertisements on Blogspot sites lead to support scam

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 9, 2016

Support scam pop-ups presented through malicious advertisements show that, next to vulnerable end points, gullible users remain an easy source of money for online criminals.

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To make Tor work better on the web, we need to be honest about it

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 6, 2016

Many websites put barriers in front of visitors who use the Tor network. If we want to make the web more accessible through Tor, we need to be honest about why this is done, rather than cry wolf about a dislike for privacy, Martijn Grooten says.

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Paper: How It Works: Steganography Hides Malware in Image Files

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 28, 2016

A new paper by CYREN researcher Lordian Mosuela takes a close look at Gatak, or Stegoloader, a piece of malware that was discovered last year and that is controlled via malicious code embedded in a PNG image, a technique known as steganography.

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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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