VB Blog

Partner with VB2018 for extra visibility among industry peers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 8, 2018

Partnering with the VB conference links your company to a successful and well-established event, demonstrates your commitment to moving the industry forward, allows you to meet potential clients, be visible to industry peers and build lasting connections.

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VB2017 paper: The router of all evil

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 7, 2018

At VB2017 in Madrid, security researcher Himanshu Anand presented a paper on malware that targets routers, looking both at the topic in general and at some individual case studies. Today we publish both the paper (co-written with Chastine Menrige) and the recording of Himanshu's presentation.

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Using Mailchimp makes malware campaigns a little bit more successful

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 6, 2018

In recent months, some malicious spam campaigns have been spreading via the systems of Mailchimp, a well-known email service provider - a tactic which may give the campaigns a slightly higher success rate.

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VB2017 video: The state of cybersecurity in Africa: Kenya

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 1, 2018

Though many of the IT security issues we face are global, there is a noticeable difference in the threats faced in various countries and regions, as well as in the ways they are dealt with. At VB2017, we heard from Tyrus Kamau about the state of cybersecurity in Kenya. Today, we publish the video of Tyrus's talk.

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A crime against statistics that is probably worse than the cyber attacks faced in County Durham

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Feb 21, 2018

A report on the number of cyber attacks faced by UK local authorities is a good example of how the large numbers seen in many reports on security are rather meaningless.

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NCSC gives important advice on lateral movement

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Feb 20, 2018

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has provided helpful and practical advice on preventing and detecting lateral movement by an attacker within a network.

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What kind of people attend Virus Bulletin conferences?

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Feb 17, 2018

If you are considering submitting a proposal for a talk to VB2018 and you're not familiar with the event, you may find it useful to know what kind of people attend the conference.

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Olympic Games target of malware, again

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Feb 15, 2018

An unattributed malware attack has disrupted some computer systems of the 2018 Winter Olympics. In 1994, a computer virus also targeted the Winter Olympics.

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There are lessons to be learned from government websites serving cryptocurrency miners

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Feb 12, 2018

Thousands of websites, including many sites of government organisations in the UK, the US and Sweden, were recently found to have been serving a cryptocurrency miner. More interesting than the incident itself, though, are the lessons that can be learned from it.

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We need to continue the debate on the ethics and perils of publishing security research

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Feb 9, 2018

An article by security researcher Collin Anderson reopens the debate on whether publishing threat analyses is always in the public interest.

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Search blog

Dutch ISP sues Spamhaus for 'extortion'

Blacklist entries 'unfair and illegal'.
Blacklist entries 'unfair and illegal'. Dutch ISP A2B Internet has sued The Spamhaus Project, claiming the project unfairly blacklisted its IP range. A2B provides the upstream… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/10/dutch-isp-sues-spamhaus-extortion/

Google AdWords phishing campaign spreads

Users urged to login because of 'issues'.
Users urged to login because of 'issues'. A new phishing campaign that targets users of Google AdWords looks worryingly real, GFI reports. The phish begins with an email claiming… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/10/google-adwords-phishing-campaign-spreads/

Mac trojan is VMware-aware

Malicious execution stopped when virtual environment is detected.
Malicious execution stopped when virtual environment is detected. Researchers at F-Secure have found a variant of the 'Flashback' trojan for Mac (a fake Adobe Flash Player update)… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/10/mac-trojan-vmware-aware/

VB conference hashtag used to spread malware

Tweet promising conference news links to trojan.
Tweet promising conference news links to trojan. A tweet using the #vb2011 hashtag, which was used in numerous tweets referring to last week's VB2011 conference, contained a link… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/10/vb-conference-hashtag-used-spread-malware/

Government trojan found on German computers

Four states admit the use of spyware.
Four states admit the use of spyware. Controversy has arisen in Germany, after the well-known CCC hacker group reported that it had found a trojan that was used to spy on behalf of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/10/government-trojan-found-german-computers/

October

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/10/

October issue of VB published

The October issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The October issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The October 2011 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/10/october-issue-vb-published/

Mysql.com hacked, serving malware

Root access to site offered on black market.
Root access to site offered on black market. Yesterday, mysql.com, the official website of the popular database management system MySQL, was hacked and visitors to the website were… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/mysql-com-hacked-serving-malware/

E-marketing companies compromised to send spam

Fake order confirmations contain malicious links.
Fake order confirmations contain malicious links. Spammers have gained access to the accounts of email service providers (ESPs) and used them to send out fake order confirmation… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/e-marketing-companies-compromised-send-spam/

Alureon trojan uses steganography to receive commands

Messages hidden inside images create extra layer of redundancy.
Messages hidden inside images create extra layer of redundancy. Researchers at Microsoft have discovered a new variant of the 'Alureon' trojan that uses steganography to make… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/alureon-trojan-uses-steganography-receive-commands/

Attack targets government agencies in CIS countries

Trojans used to steal specific files.
Trojans used to steal specific files. Researchers at Trend Micro have discovered an ongoing targeted attack against, among others, government agencies and diplomatic missions in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/attack-targets-government-agencies-cis-countries/

New RFC grants DKIM improved status

Email signing method now 'Draft Standard'.
Email signing method now 'Draft Standard'. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has published a new RFC describing the DKIM protocol which sees its status advance from… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/new-rfc-grants-dkim-improved-status/

Malicious spam campaigns leave experts puzzled

Increase in malware in spam has not led to increase in malicious activity.
Increase in malware in spam has not led to increase in malicious activity. Security researchers have noticed a significant increase in the quantity of spam sent with malicious… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/malicious-spam-campaigns-leave-experts-puzzled/

Trojan steals money from bank accounts via 'training session'

Social engineering circumvents banking security
Social engineering circumvents banking security In a new method of stealing money from customer accounts, a variant of the SpyEye trojan invites the user to make a supposedly… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/trojan-steals-money-bank-accounts-training-session/

Diginotar declared bankrupt

Browsers and operating systems had already revoked trust in Dutch CA.
Browsers and operating systems had already revoked trust in Dutch CA. Dutch certificate authority Diginotar was declared bankrupt by a Dutch court this morning. Diginotar made the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/diginotar-declared-bankrupt/

Bank's Twitter account hacked to send phishing messages

Important lessons for companies engaging in social media.
Important lessons for companies engaging in social media. Last week, the Twitter account of the Bank of Melbourne was hacked and used to send direct messages containing phishing… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/bank-s-twitter-account-hacked-send-phishing-messages/

Confirmed newsletter subscriptions half as likely to be blocked

Good practice means good performance.
Good practice means good performance. Newsletters that do not confirm their subscriptions are twice as likely to be blocked by spam filters as those that do, Virus Bulletin has… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/confirmed-newsletter-subscriptions-half-likely-be-blocked/

Windows Help Files used in targeted attacks

Files with code-executing properties attached to emails.
Files with code-executing properties attached to emails. Researchers at Symantec have discovered Windows Help Files being used in targeted attacks. Such help files, which use the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/windows-help-files-used-targeted-attacks/

Latest VBSpam certification results published

Latest VBSpam results published - full report now also available.
Latest VBSpam results published - full report now also available. The results of the September VBSpam comparative review have been announced. This month's VBSpam test sees 23… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/latest-vbspam-certification-results-published/

Iranians spied on using rogue DigiNotar certificates

Fake certificates signed for CIA, Mossad, Google, Facebook.
Fake certificates signed for CIA, Mossad, Google, Facebook. It is likely that Iranian Internet users have been spied on following a hack discovered at Dutch certificate authority… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/09/iranians-spied-using-rogue-diginotar-certificates/

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