VB Blog

VB2018 paper: Draw me like one of your French APTs – expanding our descriptive palette for cyber threat actors

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 7, 2019

Today, we publish the VB2018 paper by Chronicle researcher Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, who argues we should change the way we talk about APT actors.

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Book Review: Cyber Wars

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 19, 2018

VB Editor Martijn Grooten reviews Charles Arthur's Cyber Wars, which looks at seven prominent hacks and attacks, and the lessons we can learn from them.

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VB2018 paper: Office bugs on the rise

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 14, 2018

At VB2018 Sophos researcher Gábor Szappanos provided a detailed overview of Office exploit builders, and looked in particular at the widely exploited CVE-2017-0199. Today we publish his paper and release the video of his presentation.

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VB2018 video: The Big Bang Theory by APT-C-23

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 12, 2018

Today, we release the video of the VB2018 presentation by Check Point researcher Aseel Kayal, who connected the various dots relating to campaigns by the APT-C-23 threat group.

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VB2019 London - join us for the most international threat intelligence conference!

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 11, 2018

VB calls on organisations and individuals involved in threat intelligence from around the world to participate in next year's Virus Bulletin conference.

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VB2018 paper: Tracking Mirai variants

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 7, 2018

Today, we publish the VB2018 paper by Qihoo 360 researchers Ya Liu and Hui Wang, on extracting data from variants of the Mirai botnet to classify and track variants.

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VB2018 paper: Hide'n'Seek: an adaptive peer-to-peer IoT botnet

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 6, 2018

2018 has seen an increase in the variety of botnets living on the Internet of Things - such as Hide'N'Seek, which is notable for its use of peer-to-peer for command-and-control communication. Today, we publish the VB2018 paper by Bitdefender researchers Adrian Șendroiu and Vladimir Diaconescu, who studied the Hide'N'Seek IoT botnet. We also release the recording of their presentation.

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New paper: Botception: botnet distributes script with bot capabilities

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 4, 2018

In a new paper, Avast researchers Jan Sirmer and Adolf Streda look at how a spam campaign sent via the Necurs botnet was delivering the Flawed Ammyy RAT. As well as publishing the paper, we have also released the video of the reseachers' VB2018 presentation on the same topic.

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VB2018 video: Behind the scenes of the SamSam investigation

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 29, 2018

Today we have published the video of the VB2018 presentation by Andrew Brandt (Sophos) on the SamSam ransomware, which became hot news following the indictment of its two suspected authors yesterday.

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VB2018 video: Foreverdays: tracking and mitigating threats targeting civil society orgs

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 28, 2018

Today, we publish the video of the VB2018 presentation by CitizenLab researchers Masashi Nishihata and John Scott Railton, on threats faced by civil society.

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Search blog

Paper: Hype heuristics, signatures and the death of AV (again)

David Harley responds to anti-malware's many criticasters.
David Harley responds to anti-malware's many criticasters. Anti-virus is dead. After all, in the current threat landscape, who would use a system that relies on signatures of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/08/paper-hype-heuristics-signatures-and-death-av-again/

Throwback Thursday: Palm Breach

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to July 2000, when concerns were growing about malicious threats to the Palm Personal Digital Assistant.
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to July 2000, when concerns were growing about malicious threats to the Palm Personal Digital Assistant. In the 1980s, no one left… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/08/throwback-thursday-palm-breach/

August

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/08/

Compromised site serves Nuclear exploit kit together with fake BSOD

Support scammers not lying about a malware infection for a change.
Support scammers not lying about a malware infection for a change. During our work on the development of the VBWeb tests, which will be started soon, we came across an interesting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/compromised-site-serves-nuclear-exploit-kit-together-fake-bsod/

Throwback Thursday: Riotous Assembly

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to January 1994, shortly after Cyber Riot had emerged as the first virus capable of infecting the Windows kernel.
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to January 1994, shortly after Cyber Riot had emerged as the first virus capable of infecting the Windows kernel. Today, malware… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/throwback-thursday-riotous-assembly/

Stagefright vulnerability leaves 950 million Android devices vulnerable to remote code execution

The operating system has been patched, but it is unclear whether users will receive those patches.
The operating system has been patched, but it is unclear whether users will receive those patches. Researchers at mobile security firm Zimperium have discovered a remote code… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/stagefright-vulnerability-leaves-950-million-android-devices-vulnerable-remote-code-execution/

Throwback Thursday: Sizewell B: Fact or Fiction?

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1993, when VB asked the key question: could a virus compromise safety at one of Britain's nuclear power plants?
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1993, when VB asked the key question: could a virus compromise safety at one of Britain's nuclear power plants? 2010 saw the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/throwback-thursday-sizewell-b-fact-or-fiction/

Call for last-minute papers for VB2015 announced

Ten speaking slots waiting to be filled with presentations on 'hot' security topics.
Ten speaking slots waiting to be filled with presentations on 'hot' security topics. There's never a dull moment in the world of IT security. Whether you think the breach of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/call-last-minute-papers-announced/

'NOMORE' attack makes RC4 a little weaker again

No good reason to continue using the stream cipher, yet attacks remain impractical.
No good reason to continue using the stream cipher, yet attacks remain impractical. Researchers from the KU Leuven have presented a new attack against the RC4 stream cipher called… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/nomore-attack-makes-rc4-little-weaker-again/

Spam levels fall below 50% for the first time in 12 years

Decline not necessarily good news for spam filters.
Decline not necessarily good news for spam filters. For the first time in 12 years, less than half of email traffic is spam, Symantec reports in the latest issue of its monthly… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/spam-levels-fall-below-50-first-time-12-years/

Throwback Thursday: What You Pay For...

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1996, when VB looked at what was available to protect your computer free of charge.
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1996, when VB looked at what was available to protect your computer free of charge. Today, the 'freemium' business model is a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/throwback-thursday-what-you-pay/

Paper: Dridex in the Wild

Meng Su explains how Dridex works and how it communicates with its C&C server.
Meng Su explains how Dridex works and how it communicates with its C&C server. A descendant of Cridex, Dridex was first written about a little less than a year ago, by S21sec and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/paper-dridex-wild/

Those doing bad things deserve privacy too

Hacking Team leakers should have taken a leaf out of Snowden's book.
Hacking Team leakers should have taken a leaf out of Snowden's book. I can understand, at least in principle, that targeted malware could be used by law enforcement agencies for… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/those-doing-bad-things-deserve-privacy-too/

Throwback Thursday: Cabirn Fever

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 2004, when the first worm to spread from mobile phone to mobile phone appeared.
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 2004, when the first worm to spread from mobile phone to mobile phone appeared. Since it first appeared almost exactly 11 years… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/throwback-thursday-cabirn-fever/

Little sympathy for breached Hacking Team

Lists of customers, source code and zero-day vulnerabilities made public.
Lists of customers, source code and zero-day vulnerabilities made public. The biggest security story of this week, and probably one of the biggest of the year, is the hack of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/little-sympathy-breached-hacking-team/

Throwback Thursday: The Updating Game

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1997, when automatic updates of AV software were not the norm.
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1997, when automatic updates of AV software were not the norm. We all know that the malware scene has changed almost beyond… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/throwback-thursday-updating-game/

July

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/

Nominations opened for second Péter Ször Award

'Brilliant mind and a true gentleman' commemorated through annual award for technical security research.
'Brilliant mind and a true gentleman' commemorated through annual award for technical security research. During VB2014 in Seattle, we presented the first annual Péter Ször Award to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/06/nominations-opened-second-p-ter-sz-r-award/

Latest spam filter test sees significant drop in catch rates

Despite a drop in catch rates, 15 products earn a VBSpam award, with four earning a VBSpam+ award.
Despite a drop in catch rates, 15 products earn a VBSpam award, with four earning a VBSpam+ award. Spam is notoriously volatile and thus, while we like to make the news headlines… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/06/latest-spam-filter-test-sees-significant-drop-catch-rates/

VB2014 paper: Quantifying maliciousness in Alexa top-ranked domains

Paul Royal looks at malware served through the most popular websites.
Paul Royal looks at malware served through the most popular websites. Though VB2014 took place nine months ago, most of the papers presented during the conference remain very… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/06/paper-quantifying-maliciousness-alexa-top-ranked-domains/

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