VB Blog

VB2019 paper: Absolutely routed!! Why routers are the new bullseye in cyber attacks

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 18, 2019

Today we publish the VB2019 paper by Anurag Shandilya (K7 Computing) who looked at recent malware attacks against routers, as well as the video of his presentation in London.

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Parting thoughts 1: cybersecurity as a social science

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 17, 2019

In the first of a five-part series of blog post, departing VB Editor Martijn Grooten explains why he believes cybersecurity isn't as much as technical field as we like to believe.

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VB2020 call for papers - now open!

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 16, 2019

Have you analysed a new online threat? Do you know a new way to defend against such threats? Are you tasked with securing systems and fending off attacks? The call for papers for VB2020 is now open and we want to hear from you!

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VB2019 paper: Operation Soft Cell - a worldwide campaign against telecommunication providers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 13, 2019

Today we publish the VB2019 paper by Cybereason researchers Mor Levi, Amit Serper and Assaf Dahan on Operation Soft Cell, a targeted attack against telecom providers around the world.

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

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 10, 2019

At VB2019 in London a group of researchers from the Stratosphere Lab at the Czech Technical University in Prague presented a paper in which they analysed and dissected the cyber espionage activities of an APT group in Latin America through the analysis of one of its tools, known as Machete. Today we publish their paper and the recording of their presentation.

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VB2019 paper: The push from fiction for increased surveillance, and its impact on privacy

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Dec 5, 2019

In a paper presented at VB2019 in London, researchers Miriam Cihodariu (Heimdal Security) and Andrei Bogdan Brad (Code4Romania) looked at how surveillance is represented in fiction and how these representations are shaping people's attitudes to surveillance in current legal debates. Today we publish both their paper and the recording of Miriam presenting the paper in London.

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VB2019 paper: Oops! It happened again!

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Dec 3, 2019

At VB2019 in London industry veterans Righard Zwienenberg and Eddy Willems took a detailed look at the relationship between past and current cyber threats. Today, we publish both their paper and the recording of their presentation.

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Job vacancy at VB: Security Evangelist

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 29, 2019

Virus Bulletin is recruiting for a person to be the public face of the company

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VB2019 video: Thwarting Emotet email conversation thread hijacking with clustering

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 29, 2019

At VB2019 in London, ZEROSPAM researchers Pierre-Luc Vaudry and Olivier Coutu discussed how email clustering could be used to detect malicious Emotet emails that hijacked existing email threads. Today we publish the recording of their presentation.

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VB2019 paper: A vine climbing over the Great Firewall: a long-term attack against China

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 28, 2019

Today we publish a VB2019 paper from Lion Gu and Bowen Pan from the Qi An Xin Threat Intelligence Center in China in which they analysed an APT group dubbed 'Poison Vine', which targeted various government, military and research institutes in China.

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Search blog

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/

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/

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/

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/

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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