VB Blog

Throwback Thursday: The Politics of Anti-Virus

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Nov 10, 2016

President-elect of the United States Donald Trump made a number of promises about cybersecurity during his electoral campaign. What comes of those pledges remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: there will be a team of hard-working, dedicated individuals working behind the scenes to protect the computer systems of Federal government agencies, as there have been for years. Back in 1999, VB published a report describing a day in the life of the Affiliated Computer Services Government Solutions Group (ACS GSG) - the group responsible for providing full service computer support to US Federal government agencies across the United States.

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VB2016 paper: The TAO of Automated Iframe Injectors - Building Drive-by Platforms For Fun

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Oct 18, 2016

We publish Aditya K. Sood's VB2016 paper on the use of iframe injectors by cybercriminals to deliver drive-by downloads.

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“Cybersecurity is, at its core, a people problem,” says VB2016 keynote speaker

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 26, 2016

An interview with VB2016’s keynote speaker Christine Whalley - Director, Governance and IT Risk Management at Pfizer

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Throwback Thursday: Following the Breadcrumbs

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Sep 22, 2016

In 1999, Christine Orshesky described how one large organization decided to find out how and where the viruses within it were being obtained so it could do more to protect its networks.

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VB2016 preview: Cryptography mistakes in malware

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 15, 2016

At VB2016, two talks will discuss mistakes made by malware authors in cryptographic implementations. Ben Herzog and Yaniv Balmas will present a paper in which they look at a number of these mistakes, while Malwarebytes researcher hasherezade will present a last-minute paper on making use of some of these mistakes to crack ransomware.

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GPS technology is more at risk from cyber attack than ever before, security expert demonstrates at VB2016

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 14, 2016

Next month at VB2016, HPE Security's Oleg Petrovsky will speak about attacks on GPS. We conducted a short interview with Oleg and asked him about GPS, about the conference, and about his ultimate dinner party.

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BSides Denver: Join and Support the Security Community

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 13, 2016

If you are coming to VB2016 in Denver, why not spend an extra day in the Mile-High City and join the free BSides Denver conference, which takes place on Saturday?

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VB2016 'Last-Minute' Papers Announced

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 13, 2016

We are excited to announce the addition of the "last-minute" papers to the VB2016 programme: nine presentations covering hot research topics, from OS X attacks to exotic APTs, breaking ransomware and the current state of BGP.

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VB2016 preview: Debugging and Monitoring Malware Network Activities with Haka

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 12, 2016

In a VB2016 paper, Stormshield researchers Benoit Ancel and Mehdi Talbi will present a paper on Haka, a tool that can be used to monitor and debug malware's network communications.

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Paper: Behavioural Detection and Prevention of Malware on OS X

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Sep 12, 2016

In a new paper published through Virus Bulletin, Vincent Van Mieghem presents a novel method for detecting malware on Mac OS X, based on the system calls used by malicious software.

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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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

FTC notes malicious spam on the rise

FTC reports on a decade of spam fighting.
FTC reports on a decade of spam fighting. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released a report reflecting on the ten years in which it has been involved in the fight… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/ftc-notes-malicious-spam-rise/

All in the name

Grisoft becomes AVG.
Grisoft becomes AVG. Last month, Czech firm Grisoft, developer of widely used anti-malware product AVG, changed its corporate name to AVG Technologies CZ, s.r.o. Having operated… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/all-name/

No taste for spam?

ICANN takes steps to combat domain tasting.
ICANN takes steps to combat domain tasting. The practice of domain tasting, often used by spammers and other shady types to register tens of thousands of Internet domain names at… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/no-taste-spam/

Prolific spammer indicted

Notorious spammer Alan Ralsky charged with spamming and stock fraud.
Notorious spammer Alan Ralsky charged with spamming and stock fraud. Infamous prolific spammer Alan Ralsky has been indicted over his alleged involvement in an international… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/prolific-spammer-indicted/

2008

Latest news from the anti-virus industry provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
NewsMS to release out-of-band patch for critical IE vulnerabilityUsers advised to patch ASAP. 17 December 2008IE zero-day danger growingLarge numbers of users vulnerable to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/

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/

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