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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Search blog

Storm botnet evolution hints at spam and DDoS renting

Latest change in tactics could mean zombie clusters for hire.
Latest change in tactics could mean zombie clusters for hire. The latest twist in the long-running 'Storm' saga, the use of encryption in communications between infected hosts and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/storm-botnet-evolution-hints-spam-and-ddos-renting/

Bulletproof hosting firm claims legitimacy

Crime-laden Russian service threatens to sue detractors.
Crime-laden Russian service threatens to sue detractors. A notorious Russian firm offering 'bulletproof hosting' - website hosting services with a guarantee that sites will not be… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/bulletproof-hosting-firm-claims-legitimacy/

Kaspersky fixes serious vulnerability in Online Scanner

Exploitable ActiveX control replaced in new version.
Exploitable ActiveX control replaced in new version.Kaspersky Lab has released an updated version of its popular free online scanner to remedy a vulnerability in an ActiveX control… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/kaspersky-fixes-serious-vulnerability-online-scanner/

Five to six years for $1 million porn spammers

Strong sentences for CAN-SPAM breaches, money laundering.
Strong sentences for CAN-SPAM breaches, money laundering. Two US men found guilty in June of breaching the terms of the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act, as well as numerous other charges… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/five-six-years-1-million-porn-spammers/

Online fraud fighters' reputation targeted by crooks

Joe Job attack aims to blacken good name of UK crimefighter Bobbear.
Joe Job attack aims to blacken good name of UK crimefighter Bobbear. In a smear attack against UK-based online fraud-fighting website Bobbear.co.uk, spammers have sent out email… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/online-fraud-fighters-reputation-targeted-crooks/

Word for Mac exploit spotted

Patch Tuesday flaw targeted by vulnerability.
Patch Tuesday flaw targeted by vulnerability. A vulnerability in the Apple Mac version of Microsoft Word, covered by a patch in this month's Patch Tuesday security update, has been… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/word-mac-exploit-spotted/

Storm attack strikes back

Cute kitten cards cover latest wave of malware.
Cute kitten cards cover latest wave of malware. The Storm attack has returned with yet another wave of blended attacks, with links to the drive-by download sites of the initial… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/storm-attack-strikes-back/

4 out of 5 critical issues fixed on Patch Tuesday

Expected patch omitted from monthly security update.
Expected patch omitted from monthly security update.Microsoft has announced the contents of its monthly 'Patch Tuesday' security update release, with four 'Critical' and two… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/4-out-5-critical-issues-fixed-patch-tuesday/

Adobe acknowledges PDF flaw, issues workaround

Registry hack provides temporary fix for vulnerability.
Registry hack provides temporary fix for vulnerability.Adobe has officially confirmed the vulnerability announced last month by researcher Petko Petkov, which could allow… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/adobe-acknowledges-pdf-flaw-issues-workaround/

Spam sneaked out via YouTube systems

Entertainment site service used to send junk mails.
Entertainment site service used to send junk mails. Spammers have taken advantage of an email service provided by popular video clip site YouTube, to send out spams pushing dating… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/spam-sneaked-out-youtube-systems/

McAfee invests in encryption firm

SafeBoot acquired for $350 million.
SafeBoot acquired for $350 million.McAfee has announced the acquisition of encryption and device control specialist SafeBoot, which produces a range of security products for PCs… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/mcafee-invests-encryption-firm/

Smaller vendors question rumours of impending doom

Experts deny claims that flood of threats gives bigger firms advantage.
Experts deny claims that flood of threats gives bigger firms advantage. High levels of new malware, emerging at an ever-increasing rate, may mean smaller security firms will no… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/smaller-vendors-question-rumours-impending-doom/

Sun patches serious Java flaws

Critical vulnerabilities covered by urgent patches.
Critical vulnerabilities covered by urgent patches.Sun Microsystems has issued a series of patches to fix several vulnerabilities in its popular Java software. Successful… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/sun-patches-serious-java-flaws/

US users overestimating PC security

Survey finds people are less protected than they think.
Survey finds people are less protected than they think. A joint study carried out by McAfee and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) has found that many US consumers wrongly… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/us-users-overestimating-pc-security/

October

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/

Trivia

Panda reveals country with lowest level of infected PCs.
Panda reveals country with lowest level of infected PCs.Panda Security has revealed that results from its online malware-scanning tool Nanoscan indicate that computers it scanned… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/trivia/

Alarm over possible PDF flaw

Vulnerability announcement hyped to disaster level.
Vulnerability announcement hyped to disaster level. The announcement of a potentially serious vulnerability in the ubiquitous Adobe PDF document format sparked considerable media… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/alarm-over-possible-pdf-flaw/

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 2007 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/october-issue-vb-published/

Phil makes anti-phishing education child's play

Researchers create game to raise awareness.
Researchers create game to raise awareness. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have created an interactive game designed to teach players how to identify phishing URLs and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/phil-makes-anti-phishing-education-child-s-play/

What's in a number?

Latest round of spam stats.
Latest round of spam stats. According to various reports last month, spam now accounts for 83%, 85%, 91.9% or 95% of all emails received. Regardless of the inconsistencies, the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/what-s-number/

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