VB Blog

48 hours after initial reports, many mysteries remain around the latest ransomware/wiper threat

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 29, 2017

Whether you call it Petya, NotPetya, Nyetya or Petna, there are still many mysteries surrounding the malware that has been causing havoc around the world.

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VB2017 Early Bird discount to expire this week

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 28, 2017

This week, the Early Bird discount for VB2017 comes to an end - so, for a 10% saving on the cost of full price registration, make sure you register now!

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VB2016 paper: Steam stealers: it's all fun and games until someone's account gets hijacked

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 23, 2017

Last year, Kaspersky Lab researcher Santiago Pontiroli and PwC's Bart Parys presented a VB2016 paper analysing the malicious threats faced by users of the Steam online gaming platform, and highlighting how organized criminals are making money with these profitable schemes. Today, we publish the paper.

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Research paper shows it may be possible to distinguish malware traffic using TLS

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 22, 2017

Researchers at Cisco have published a paper describing how it may be possible to use machine learning to distinguish malware command-and-control traffic using TLS from regular enterprise traffic, and to classify malware families based on their encrypted C&C traffic.

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Is CVE-2017-0199 the new CVE-2012-0158?

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 20, 2017

After five years of exploitation in a wide variety of attacks, CVE-2012-0158 may have found a successor in CVE-2017-0199, which is taking the Office exploit scene by storm.

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Review: BSides London 2017

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 19, 2017

Virus Bulletin was a proud sponsor of BSides London 2017 - Martijn Grooten reports on a great event.

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VB2017: one of the most international security conferences

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 15, 2017

It is well known that the problem of cybersecurity is a global one that affects users worldwide - but it's also one that has some unique local flavours. With speakers representing at least 24 countries, VB2017 is one of the most international security conferences on the circuit, allowing attendees to hear the viewpoints of experts from around the world. Register before 1 July and receive a 10% Early Bird discount.

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VB2016 paper: Diving into Pinkslipbot's latest campaign

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 12, 2017

Qakbot or Qbot, is a banking trojan that makes the news every once in a while and was the subject of a VB2016 paper by Intel Security researchers Sanchit Karve, Guilherme Venere and Mark Olea. In it, they provided a detailed analysis of the Pinkslipbot/Qakbot trojan and its then latest campaign. Their full paper is now available to download or read online.

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Book review: Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 2, 2017

VB Editor Martijn Grooten reviews Finn Brunton's book 'Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet'.

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Virus Bulletin to sponsor BSides London

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 1, 2017

Virus Bulletin is proud to be a Silver sponsor of BSides London next week; we look forward to the event and to meeting many security professionals.

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Search blog

Symbian worm sighted in the wild

Malware pretends to be media or image file.
Malware pretends to be media or image file. A new worm has been sighted in the wild that operates on the Symbian operating system, which is used on many mobile phones. The worm,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/symbian-worm-sighted-wild/

Google links scam Avira users

Suspect firm advertising via Google found to be specialising in hijacking security brands.
Suspect firm advertising via Google found to be specialising in hijacking security brands.Google searches for Avira and the company's anti-malware product Antivir, a free version… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/google-links-scam-avira-users/

US agencies report vishing, extortion, danger of hacking

FBI name used in email attacks, CIA warns of power supply hacks.
FBI name used in email attacks, CIA warns of power supply hacks. US security and law enforcement agencies were more than usually active in the computer security world last week,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/us-agencies-report-vishing-extortion-danger-hacking/

Malcode from Mexico and Africa predicted to boom

Developing world expected to contribute heavily to future cybercrime.
Developing world expected to contribute heavily to future cybercrime. A report from F-Secure has predicted increasing levels of malware creation and operation in 'developing'… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/malcode-mexico-and-africa-predicted-boom/

Microsoft alert on Excel vulnerability

Targeted exploitation of zero-day flaw seen in wild.
Targeted exploitation of zero-day flaw seen in wild.Microsoft has issued a security advisory on an unresolved vulnerability in its Excel software, which has been reported as a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/microsoft-alert-excel-vulnerability/

Help for victims of e-crime

Cybercrime support website launched.
Cybercrime support website launched. A website dedicated to helping victims of online crime and other incidents has been launched in the UK. The site, www.e-victims.org, aims to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/help-victims-e-crime/

Stormy love letters

Storm botnet celebrates birthday with new wave of spam.
Storm botnet celebrates birthday with new wave of spam. Earlier this week malware experts warned of likely increased activity of the Storm botnet around Valentine's Day next month.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/stormy-love-letters/

Phishing danger increases as Storm botnet is hired out

Smart new trojan and Storm diversification add to online banking risk.
Smart new trojan and Storm diversification add to online banking risk. The dangers of banking online grew significantly in past weeks, as portions of the ever-expanding Storm… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/phishing-danger-increases-storm-botnet-hired-out/

Rogue anti-malware targets Mac users

Scam expands horizons to draw in new market of victims.
Scam expands horizons to draw in new market of victims. The rogue anti-malware scam, in which fake anti-spyware and anti-virus products are inveigled into victims' machines,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/rogue-anti-malware-targets-mac-users/

Spam printing proof-of-concept revealed

Lack of security allows websites to send spammish content to network printers.
Lack of security allows websites to send spammish content to network printers. Opening your inbox on a Monday morning and finding out that it's full of spam is bad enough already,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/spam-printing-proof-concept-revealed/

Hundreds of legitimate websites being hacked into

New mass infection leaves security researchers puzzled.
New mass infection leaves security researchers puzzled. Web security company ScanSafe has reported a new mass infection of websites, which it claims accounts for 15% of the web… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/hundreds-legitimate-websites-being-hacked/

Usual fare for holiday season

Storm ecards and social site spyware mark unsurprising year end.
Storm ecards and social site spyware mark unsurprising year end. With large portions of the globe celebrating various festivals over the past few weeks, an expected upsurge in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/usual-fare-holiday-season/

SQL attack hacks wide range of sites

CA among victims of major attack linking sites to malware.
CA among victims of major attack linking sites to malware. Huge numbers of legitimate websites - perhaps as many as 100,000 according to some reports - fell victim to hackers… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/sql-attack-hacks-wide-range-sites/

Batch of Dutch MP3 players ships with malware

Worm included as unwanted extra for music lovers.
Worm included as unwanted extra for music lovers. A shipment of MP3 players sold in recent months by Dutch firm Victory has been found to be infected with the Fujacks worm, which… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/batch-dutch-mp3-players-ships-malware/

Spammers and scammers in court

Spammers required to pay $200,000; 419 scammers face prison sentence.
Spammers required to pay $200,000; 419 scammers face prison sentence. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has settled a court case with a spamming advertising company.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/spammers-and-scammers-court/

Guidelines issued for UK hacker tool ban

Government issues guidelines in response to lobbying.
Government issues guidelines in response to lobbying. The British government has published a set of guidelines for the application of a law that makes it illegal to create or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/guidelines-issued-uk-hacker-tool-ban/

Anti-malware school

F-Secure launches malware analysis course at Helsinki University.
F-Secure launches malware analysis course at Helsinki University. Researchers at F-Secure have decided to do their bit in helping to educate the next generation of malware… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/anti-malware-school/

Mortgage spam rockets

Spammers take note of US interest rate cuts.
Spammers take note of US interest rate cuts. Mortgage spam saw a significant increase last month in conjunction with the interest rate cuts announced by the US Federal Reserve.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/mortgage-spam-rockets/

January

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/

More rogue Flash ads

Rogue ads infiltrate Expedia and Rhapsody sites.
Rogue ads infiltrate Expedia and Rhapsody sites. Following on from last month's feature on the SWF.AdHijack family (see VB, January 2008, p.12), malicious Flash ads were found to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/more-rogue-flash-ads/

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