VB Blog

VB2021 localhost call for papers: a great opportunity

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Mar 17, 2021

VB2021 localhost presents an exciting opportunity to share your research with an even wider cross section of the IT security community around the world than usual, without having to take time out of your work schedule (or budget) to travel.

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Mar 2, 2021

In a follow-up to an article published last week, Kurt Natvig takes us through the analysis of a new malicious sample using the .xlsb file format.

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Feb 23, 2021

In a new article, researcher Kurt Natvig takes a close look at XF 4.0 malware.

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Jan 29, 2021

At VB2019, CSIS researcher Benoît Ancel spoke about a quiet banking trojan actor that has been targeting German users since at least 2014.

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Jan 19, 2021

The call for papers for VB2021 is now open and we want to hear from you - we're planning for flexible presentation formats, so everyone is encouraged to submit, regardless of whether or not you know at this stage whether you'll be able to travel to Prague!

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Jan 11, 2021

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of researcher Yonathan Klijnsma last week. Here, former VB Editor Martijn Grooten shares his memories of a talented researcher and a very kind person: this month, infosec lost a really good one.

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Jan 8, 2021

VB has made all VB2020 localhost presentations available on the VB YouTube channel, so you can now watch - and share - any part of the conference freely and without registration.

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Dec 8, 2020

At VB2020 localhost, threat intelligence consultant Jamie Collier used the analytical technique of backcasting to look at the rise and fall of the cyber threat intelligence industry.

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Dec 4, 2020

At VB2020 localhost, Carbon Black's Scott Knight presented an approach he and his colleagues have taken to more realistically simulate malware attacks.

Posted by Virus Bulletin on Dec 2, 2020

At VB2020, researcher Paul Litvak revealed how he put together a comprehensive map of threat actor use of open-source offensive security tools.

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Ransomware would be much worse if it wasn't for email security solutions

The latest VBSpam test brings good news: at least 199 out of every 200 emails containing a malicious attachment were blocked by email security solutions. All of the full solutions tested achieved a VBSpam award, with five earning a VBSpam+ award.
Many experts believe that ransomware is set to become an even worse problem in 2017 than it was in 2016 — which is rather bad news, given the damage it has already done. Still,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/01/ransomware-would-be-so-much-worse-if-it-wasnt-email-security-solutions/

Throwback Thursday: The malware battle: reflections and forecasts

"Another year has come to its end and the malware battle still rages on." In January 2004, Jamz Yaneza reflected on the year just ended and pondered what the coming year would have in store for the AV industry.
"Another year has come to its end and the malware battle still rages on. It seems to be a never-ending uphill struggle to secure digital information." This could have been written… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/01/throwback-thursday-malware-battle-reflections-and-forecasts/

January

https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/01/

2017

https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/

VB2016 paper: Open Source Malware Lab

At VB2016, ThreatConnect Director of Research Innovation Robert Simmons presented a paper on setting up an open source malware lab. Today, we share the accompanying paper and video.
Security experts aren't necessarily known for being skilled at predicting the future, but if there's one prediction they are guaranteed to get right, it's that there will be a lot… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/01/vb2016-paper-open-source-malware-lab/

A Christmas present for the security community

As a Christmas present for the security community, we have uploaded most of the papers and videos from the VB2015 conference which took place in Prague almost 15 months ago. The Virus Bulletin crew wishes you all the best for 2017!
A botnet of Internet-connected cameras causing the largest DDoS ever; the ransomware threat that appears to get worse every day; a state-sponsored hacker group that attempted to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/christmas-present-security-community/

Paper: Spreading techniques used by malware

In a new paper published by Virus Bulletin, Acalvio researcher Abhishek Singh discusses some of the techniques used by malware to increase its impact by spreading further.
Malware infections usually start with a user opening an attachment, visiting a link, or simply accessing an infected site with a vulnerable browser. But once malware has infected… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/paper-spreading-techniques-used-malware/

VB2016 video: On the StrongPity waterhole attacks targeting Italian and Belgian encryption users

At VB2016, Kaspersky Lab researcher Kurt Baumgartner delivered a presentation on the StrongPity watering hole attacks that targeted users of encryption technologies, and which were recently featured in a report by Microsoft. Today, we share the video of K…
Last week, Microsoft published a paper on two attack groups, dubbed PROMETHIUM and NEODYMIUM, that targeted individuals in Europe and that both used the then unknown and unpatched… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/vb2016-video-strongpity-waterhole-attacks-targeting-italian-and-belgian-encryption-users/

Conference review: Botconf 2016

Three members of the Virus Bulletin team attended the Botconf 2016 conference in Lyon, France last month, enjoying talks on subjects that ranged from state-sponsored attacks to exploit kits, and from banking trojans to cyber insurance.
This review was written by Martijn Grooten, Adrian Luca and Ionuț Răileanu. Though still only in its fourth year, Botconf has become one of the Virus Bulletin team's favourite… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/conference-review-botconf-2016/

Throwback Thursday: Adjust Your Attitude!

"Most of you reading this article have the technical skill but do you have the people skills?" In 2000, James Wolfe urged security experts to sell themselves and their services.
At the VB2016 conference in Denver earlier this year, ESET researcher Stephen Cobb spoke about the cybersecurity skills shortage, providing an overview of existing efforts to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/throwback-thursday-adjust-your-attitude/

VB2016 paper: Modern attacks on Russian financial institutions

Today, we publish the VB2016 paper and presentation (recording) by ESET researchers Jean-Ian Boutin and Anton Cherepanov, in which they look at sophisticated attacks against Russian financial institutions.
Today, we publish the VB2016 paper "Modern attacks on Russian financial institutions" (here in HTML format and here in PDF format) by ESET researchers Jean-Ian Boutin and Anton… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/vb2016-paper-modern-attacks-russian-financial-institutions/

More on the Moose botnet at Botconf

At Botconf 2016 this week, GoSecure researchers Masarah Paquet-Clouston and Olivier Bilodeau presented their research on the Moose botnet - something Olivier Bilodeau previously spoke about at VB2015.
This week, several members of the Virus Bulletin team are attending Botconf 2016 in Lyon, France. Security conferences provide good opportunities to meet fellow researchers and to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/more-moose-botnet-botconf/

VB2016 paper: Defeating sandbox evasion: how to increase successful emulation rate in your virtualized environment

Today, we publish the VB2016 paper and presentation (recording) by Check Point Software researchers Alexander Chailytko and Stanislav Skuratovich, which focuses on the techniques used by malware to detect virtual environments, and provides detailed techni…
In order to analyse a potentially malicious binary, an important first step is to run it in a specialised virtual environment, or sandbox environment, and see what it does – if it… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/vb2016-paper-defeating-sandbox-evasion-how-increase-successful-emulation-rate-your-virtualized-environment/

December

https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/december/

VB2016 paper: Mobile applications: a backdoor into the Internet of Things?

While the Internet of Things blossoms with newly connected objects every day, the security and privacy of these objects is often overlooked, making the IoT a major security concern. Unfortunately, reverse-engineering so-called smart devices is not an easy…
The meteoric rise of the Mirai botnet in recent months has led to the Internet of Things (IoT) becoming a major and actual security concern. To assess the effective security… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/november/vb2016-paper-mobile-applications-backdoor-internet-things/

VB2016 paper: Wave your false flags! Deception tactics muddying attribution in targeted attacks

Today, we publish the VB2016 paper and presentation (recording) by Kaspersky Lab researchers Juan Andrés Guerrero-Saade and Brian Bartholomew, in which they look at some of the deception tactics used in targeted attacks.
Security researchers have a complicated relationship with attribution. On the one hand, for technical analyses, it doesn't matter whether an attack was performed by a Bear, a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/november/vb2016-paper-wave-your-false-flags-deception-tactics-muddying-attribution-targeted-attacks/

November

https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/november/

Throwback Thursday: The Politics of Anti-Virus

President-elect of the United States Donald Trump made a number of promises about cybersecurity during his electoral campaign. What comes of those pledges remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: there will be a team of hard-working, dedicated indivi…
The United States has a new president-elect, and now both the citizens of the US and the rest of the world wait with bated breath to find out what changes the Trump presidency… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/november/throwback-thursday-politics-anti-virus/

October

https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/october/

VB2016 paper: The TAO of Automated Iframe Injectors - Building Drive-by Platforms For Fun

We publish Aditya K. Sood's VB2016 paper on the use of iframe injectors by cybercriminals to deliver drive-by downloads.
VB2016 took place almost two weeks ago, since when we have had many requests to publish the papers presented at the conference, as well as the videos of those presentations. Virus… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/october/vb2016-paper-tao-automated-iframe-injectors-building-drive-platforms-fun/

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