VB Blog

Paying a malware ransom is bad, but telling people never to do it is unhelpful advice

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 26, 2016

The current ransomware plague is one of the worst threats the Internet has seen and it is unlikely to go away any time soon. But telling people to never pay the ransom is unhelpful advice.

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VB2015 paper: VolatilityBot: Malicious Code Extraction Made by and for Security Researchers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 22, 2016

In his VB2015 paper, Martin Korman presented his 'VolatilyBot' tool, which extracts malicious code from packed binaries, leveraging the functionality of the Volatility Framework.

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VB2016 programme announced, registration opened

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 21, 2016

We have announced 37 papers (and four reserve papers) that will be presented at VB2016 in Denver, Colorado, USA in October. Registration for the conference has opened; make sure you register before 1 July to benefit from a 10% early bird discount.

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New tool helps ransomware victims indentify the malware family

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 15, 2016

The people behind the MalwareHunterTeam have released a tool that helps victims of ransomware identify which of more than 50 families has infected their system, something which could help them find a tool to decrypt their files.

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It's fine for vulnerabilities to have names — we just need not to take them too seriously

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 13, 2016

The PR campaign around the Badlock vulnerability backfired when it turned out that the vulnerability wasn't as serious as had been suggested. But naming vulnerabilities can actually be helpful and certainly shouldn't hurt.

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Throwback Thursday: The Number of the Beasts

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Apr 7, 2016

The Virus Bulletin Virus Prevalence Table, which ran from 1992 until 2013, gave users a regular snapshot of what was really going on in the virus (and later malware) world, recording the number of incidents of each virus reported to VB in the preceding month. In August 2000, Denis Zenkin, a self-confessed virus prevalence table junkie, shared his findings following a study of the virus prevalence tables over the preceding few years, allowing him to determine the top ten viruses of the period, the top viruses by type and the viruses of the year.

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Paper: All Your Meetings Are Belong to Us: Remote Code Execution in Apache OpenMeetings

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 30, 2016

Security researcher Andreas Lindh recently found a vulnerability in Apache OpenMeetings that could allow remote code execution on a vulnerable server. Andreas reported the vulnerability to the OpenMeetings developers and, once it had been patched, he wrote up the details.

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Throwback Thursday: 'In the Beginning was the Word...'

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Mar 24, 2016

Word and Excel’s internal file formats used to be something in which few were interested – until macro viruses came along and changed all that. In 1996, Andrew Krukov provided an overview of the new breed of viruses.

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VB2016 Call for Papers Deadline

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 18, 2016

You have until the early hours (GMT) of Monday 21 March to submit an abstract for VB2016! The VB2016 programme will be announced in the first week of April.

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How broken is SHA-1 really?

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Mar 15, 2016

SHA-1 collisions may be found in the next few months, but that doesn't mean that fake SHA-1-based certificates will be created in the near future. Nevertheless, it is time for everyone, and those working in security in particular, to move away from outdated hash functions.

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Scammers take advantage of Epsilon data breach

Trojan hidden as security tool for affected customers.
Trojan hidden as security tool for affected customers. Scammers are currently taking advantage of the data breach that affected email security provider Epsilon recently, by… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/scammers-take-advantage-epsilon-data-breach/

Department of Justice shuts down Coreflood botnet

'Stop' command sent from replaced command and control servers.
'Stop' command sent from replaced command and control servers. Earlier this week the US Department of Justice (DoJ) obtained an unprecedented temporary restraining order (TRO) that… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/department-justice-shuts-down-coreflood-botnet/

First AV-Test certifications of 2011 published

22 products scored on multiple scales in quarterly test report.
22 products scored on multiple scales in quarterly test report. Testing organization AV-Test has published its latest round of anti-malware certification tests, with 22 products… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/first-av-test-certifications-2011-published/

Adobe releases emergency update for Flash Player

Zero-day exploit actively being abused.
Zero-day exploit actively being abused.Adobe has announced it will release an update for its Flash Player on Friday 15 April, fixing a vulnerability that is currently being… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/adobe-releases-emergency-update-flash-player/

AV-Comparatives unveils latest on-demand results

20 products rated in large-scale detection tests.
20 products rated in large-scale detection tests. Testing organization AV-Comparatives has revealed the results of its latest on-demand test. Top-rated products include Trustport,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/av-comparatives-unveils-latest-demand-results/

Ransom trojan demands Windows re-activation

Criminals make money through calls to supposedly free phone number.
Criminals make money through calls to supposedly free phone number. A new piece of ransomware has been discovered that shows the PC user a blue screen and asks them to re-activate… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/ransom-trojan-demands-windows-re-activation/

Major email service provider suffers data breach

Financial institutions among affected customers.
Financial institutions among affected customers. Email service provider Epsilon, which carries out email marketing for many major companies, has admitted it has fallen victim to a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/major-email-service-provider-suffers-data-breach/

RSA gives insight into anatomy of attack on its systems

Publicly available information used to spear phish employees.
Publicly available information used to spear phish employees. Security company RSA has released some information about how hackers gained access to its systems, giving a good… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/rsa-gives-insight-anatomy-attack-its-systems/

April

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/

April issue of VB published

The April issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The April issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The April 2011 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/april-issue-vb-published/

Keylogger on Samsung laptops proves to be false alarm

AV product wrongly flags malware based on existence of directory.
AV product wrongly flags malware based on existence of directory. A number of security bloggers raised concern yesterday about the apparent presence of a keylogger on Samsung… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/03/keylogger-samsung-laptops-proves-be-false-alarm/

South Korea proposes to make security software mandatory

Law enables government to search PCs of those who do not comply.
Law enables government to search PCs of those who do not comply. A bill, proposed by a number of South Korean MPs, would make the use of security software mandatory for computer… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/03/south-korea-proposes-make-security-software-mandatory/

Rogue SSL certificates issued for popular websites

Certificates revoked, but browsers still need to be updated.
Certificates revoked, but browsers still need to be updated.Comodo, a major vendor of SSL certificates, has admitted to one of its affiliates' servers being hacked, leading to nine… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/03/rogue-ssl-certificates-issued-popular-websites/

Cutwail botnet sent 1.7 trillion spam messages

Operators made several million through botnet.
Operators made several million through botnet. Researchers from The Last Line of Defense and universities in Bochum and Santa Barbara have shared some insight into the workings of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/03/cutwail-botnet-sent-1-7-trillion-spam-messages/

Spam levels take a nose dive as Rustock apparently taken down - update

Eerie silence from Rustock botnet. Microsoft reported to have co-ordinated take down.
Eerie silence from Rustock botnet. Microsoft reported to have co-ordinated take down. Spam levels have taken a nose dive over the last 24 hours - apparently as a result of a take… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/03/spam-levels-take-nose-dive-rustock-apparently-taken-down-update/

Increase in use of mobile anti-malware protection

Poll shows smartphone users more likely to use anti-malware protection on their phones than three years ago.
Poll shows smartphone users more likely to use anti-malware protection on their phones than three years ago. In a poll of visitors to the VB website, 57% of smartphone users said… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/03/increase-use-mobile-anti-malware-protection/

Taking Brain home

Short film features Mikko Hyppönen returning first PC virus to its birthplace.
Short film features Mikko Hyppönen returning first PC virus to its birthplace. Anti-malware vendor F-Secure released a short documentary film this week to mark the 25th anniversary… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/03/taking-brain-home/

Tsunami response quick among cybercriminals

Miscreants releasing scams, phishing, scareware... within a matter of hours.
Miscreants releasing scams, phishing, scareware... within a matter of hours. As most of the world reels in shock at the devastation caused by this morning's massive earthquake in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/03/tsunami-response-quick-among-cybercriminals/

Cybercriminals frustrated with botnet trackers

Drastic measures discussed by users of online forum.
Drastic measures discussed by users of online forum. Russian cybercriminals are willing to go to great lengths to frustrate services that hinder botnets created with the ZeuS and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/03/cybercriminals-frustrated-botnet-trackers/

ENISA calls for revised botnet measurements

EU agency says current measures of botnet threat are misleading.
EU agency says current measures of botnet threat are misleading. European cyber security agency, ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency) has called for a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/03/enisa-calls-revised-botnet-measurements/

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