VB Blog

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

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 30, 2017

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 attackers. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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WannaCry shows we need to understand why organizations don't patch

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 17, 2017

Perhaps the question we should be asking about WannaCry is not "why do so many organizations allow unpatched machines to exist on their networks?" but "why doesn't patching work reasonably well most of the time?"

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Modern security software is not necessarily powerless against threats like WannaCry

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 15, 2017

The WannaCry ransomware has affected many organisations around the world, making it probably the worst and most damaging of its kind. But modern security is not necessarily powerless against such threats.

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Throwback Thursday: CARO: A personal view

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 11, 2017

This week sees the 11th International CARO Workshop taking place in Krakow, Poland – a prestigious annual meeting of anti-malware and security experts. As a founding member of CARO, Fridrik Skulason was well placed, in August 1994, to shed some light on the organization, to explain in detail CARO's main activities and functions, as well as the reasons behind its strict membership regulations.

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VB2016 paper: Uncovering the secrets of malvertising

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 10, 2017

Malicious advertising, a.k.a. malvertising, has evolved tremendously over the past few years to take a central place in some of today’s largest web-based attacks. It is by far the tool of choice for attackers to reach the masses but also to target them with infinite precision and deliver such payloads as ransomware. Today, we publish a paper presented at VB2016 in Denver by Malwarebytes researchers Jérôme Segura and Chris Boyd, in which they look at the advertising ecosystem, how it is used, and at what techniques are being utilised to spread malware

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Throwback Thursday: Tools of the DDoS Trade

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 4, 2017

As DDoS attacks become costlier to fix and continue to increase in both number and diversity, we turn back the clock to 2000, when Aleksander Czarnowski took a look at the DDoS tools of the day.

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VB2016 paper: Building a local passiveDNS capability for malware incident response

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 4, 2017

At VB2016, Splunk researchers Kathy Wang and Steve Brant presented a Splunk app that can be used to locally collect passive DNS data. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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VB2016 video: Last-minute paper: A malicious OS X cocktail served from a tainted bottle

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 28, 2017

In a VB2016 last-minute presentation, ESET researchers Peter Kalnai and Martin Jirkal looked at the OS X malware threats KeRanger and Keydnap, that both spread through a compromised BitTorrent client. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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Consumer spyware: a serious threat with a different threat model

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 25, 2017

Consumer spyware is a growing issue and one that can have serious consequences: its use is increasingly common in domestic violence. But do our threat models consider the attacker with physical access to, and inside knowledge of the victim?

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VB2016 paper: Debugging and monitoring malware network activities with Haka

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 24, 2017

In their VB2016 paper, Stormshield researchers Benoît Ancel and Mehdi Talbi introduced Haka, an open-source language to monitor, debug and control malicious network traffic. Both their paper and the video recording of their presentation are now available to read/view on www.virusbulletin.com.

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VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Ilya Rabinovich and Randy Abrams about their research, Windows 8 security, and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Ilya Rabinovich and Randy Abrams about their research, Windows 8 security, and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/speaker-spotlight-rabinovich-abrams/

Are Gmail's new advertisements in breach of CAN-SPAM?

Marketers upset about 'emails' that you can't unsubscribe from.
Marketers upset about 'emails' that you can't unsubscribe from. A debate is happening among (anti-)spam experts on whether Gmail's new way of displaying advertisements is in breach… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/are-gmail-s-new-advertisements-breach-can-spam/

Thousands of websites affected by nameserver hijack redirecting visitors to malware

DNS caching causes attack to have a long tail.
DNS caching causes attack to have a long tail. Yesterday, visitors to thousands of Dutch websites were served an 'under construction' page that, through a hidden iframe, was… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/thousands-websites-affected-nameserver-hijack-redirecting-visitors-malware/

Firefox 17 zero-day exploit targets users of Tor network

Visitors to child abuse websites likely target of operation, but will there be collateral damage?
Visitors to child abuse websites likely target of operation, but will there be collateral damage? A zero-day exploit in Firefox 17 that was probably used to track the visitors to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/firefox-17-zero-day-exploit-targets-users-tor-network/

There is no 'I know what I am doing' trump card in security

NSA activities could make millions avoid US-based services.
NSA activities could make millions avoid US-based services. We have all been there. To continue the product you're working on, you need to get some extra permission: a port needs… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/there-no-i-know-what-i-am-doing-trump-card-security/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Mark Kennedy and Igor Muttik about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Mark Kennedy and Igor Muttik about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/speaker-spotlight-kennedy-muttik/

August

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/

August issue of VB published

The August issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The August issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The August 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/08/august-issue-vb-published/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Axelle Apvrille and Karine de Pontevès about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Axelle Apvrille and Karine de Pontevès about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-apvrille-de-ponteves/

Is publishing your employees' email addresses such a big deal?

Beware of a false sense of security.
Beware of a false sense of security. Security blogger Graham Cluley points to hypocrisy in a KPMG press release in which it criticises FTSE 350 companies for 'leaking data that can… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/publishing-your-employees-email-addresses-such-big-deal/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Carsten Willems and Ralf Hund about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Carsten Willems and Ralf Hund about their research interests and what they aim to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-willems-hund/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to James Wyke about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to James Wyke about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin, with an exciting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-wyke/

IETF discusses deprecation of IPv6 fragmentation

Little-used feature could have unintended security consequences.
Little-used feature could have unintended security consequences. As the Internet is (very) slowly migrating towards IPv6, researchers are reconsidering a little-used feature that… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/ietf-discusses-deprecation-ipv6-fragmentation/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenter Samir Mody about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenter Samir Mody about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/speaker-spotlight-mody/

July issue of VB published

The July issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The July issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The July 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or download… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/july-issue-vb-published/

July

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/07/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenter Andreas Lindh about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.
We speak to VB2013 presenter Andreas Lindh about his research interests and what he aims to bring to VB2013.The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn (2-4 October) in Berlin,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/speaker-spotlight-lindh/

Compromised Yahoo! accounts continue to spread Android malware

Problem likely to be on Yahoo!'s side.
Problem likely to be on Yahoo!'s side. In recent weeks, we have noticed an uptick in the amount of spam sent from compromised Yahoo! accounts; we have reasons to believe the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/compromised-yahoo-accounts-continue-spread-android-malware/

VB2013 speaker spotlight

We speak to VB2013 presenters Lysa Myers and David Harley about their research interests and what they aim to bring to the conference.
We speak to VB2013 presenters Lysa Myers and David Harley about their research interests and what they aim to bring to the conference. The VB2013 conference takes place this autumn… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/speaker-spotlight-harley-myers/

Facebook temporarily blocks access from Tor

Malicious activity triggered automatic lockdown.
Malicious activity triggered automatic lockdown. A 'high volume of malicious activity across Tor exit nodes' is believed to have been the reason why Facebook temporarily blocked… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/06/facebook-temporarily-blocks-access-tor/

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