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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March

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/03/

UK watchdog body backs phishing victims

Consumer group Which? urges banks to protect customers scammed online.
Consumer group Which? urges banks to protect customers scammed online. Major UK consumer protection organisation Which? has issued a call for a change to rules regarding… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/03/uk-watchdog-body-backs-phishing-victims/

News round-up

February's goings on in the anti-malware industry.
February's goings on in the anti-malware industry. Mobile security was something of a key theme last month, with a rash of new products released alongside updates to those… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/03/news-round/

Phishing techniques

Sorin Mustaca documents common and emerging phishing techniques.
Sorin Mustaca documents common and emerging phishing techniques. Despite the fact that phishing is receiving increasing amounts of media coverage, and people are more aware than… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/03/phishing-techniques/

Cartoon trojan threatens P2P users

Illegal Japanese file-sharers warned off by anime character malware.
Illegal Japanese file-sharers warned off by anime character malware. A series of trojans have been spotted targeting users of popular Japanese file-sharing system Winny. The… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/cartoon-trojan-threatens-p2p-users/

Trend troubled by further flaw

Second vulnerability unveiled this month only affects server products.
Second vulnerability unveiled this month only affects server products. Less than two weeks after details of a UPX vulnerability affecting many of Trend Micro's products were… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/trend-troubled-further-flaw/

FTC criticised for low adware fine

Latest DirectRevenue case nets mere $1.5 million penalty.
Latest DirectRevenue case nets mere $1.5 million penalty. Serial adware user DirectRevenue, along with several advertising clients, has agreed to settle a case brought by the US… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/ftc-criticised-low-adware-fine/

Fujacks writers arrested in first for China

Eight seized for writing and selling cuddly panda malware.
Eight seized for writing and selling cuddly panda malware. Eight men have been arrested in the central Chinese province of Hubei, on suspicion of involvement in the creation and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/fujacks-writers-arrested-first-china/

Trend hit by UPX vulnerability

Compression handling issue affects swathe of products.
Compression handling issue affects swathe of products. A wide range of Trend Micro security products are affected by a flaw in the handling of files compressed with UPX, which… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/trend-hit-upx-vulnerability/

Massive attack on web root servers

Large-scale DDoS barrage hits top-level DNS machines.
Large-scale DDoS barrage hits top-level DNS machines. An exceptionally large Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack took place yesterday, targeting the root DNS servers at the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/massive-attack-web-root-servers/

Popular sites carrying Javascript attacks

Superbowl stadium among many hosting malware attack.
Superbowl stadium among many hosting malware attack. Malicious Javascript has been planted on numerous legitimate websites over the weekend, attempting to take advantage of known… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/popular-sites-carrying-javascript-attacks/

Upcoming events

Round up of this year's must-attend spam events.
Round up of this year's must-attend spam events. The 2007 Spam Conference will take place on 30 March 2007 at MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA. The title for this year's conference is… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/upcoming-events/

Microsoft steals market share

Symantec and McAfee see drops in market share.
Symantec and McAfee see drops in market share. A report by analyst firm NPD Group has revealed that anti-malware heavyweights Symantec and McAfee both lost market share following… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/microsoft-steals-market-share/

February

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/

Vista security concerns

'Dramatically more secure'... or not?
'Dramatically more secure'... or not? January saw the full commercial release of Microsoft's latest operating system: the long-awaited Vista. Since its release arguments have… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/vista-security-concerns/

Major brands hit with adware fines

Landmark case blames advertisers for malware tactics.
Landmark case blames advertisers for malware tactics. Three major brands, Priceline, Travelocity and Cingular Wireless, have settled a New York lawsuit charging them with using… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/major-brands-hit-adware-fines/

VB100 news

This month: new platform, new logo.
This month: new platform, new logo. With the overall conclusion that the release of Vista will make little difference to the overall malware landscape, VB chose this month to put… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/02/news/

UK police 'can no longer cope' with e-crime

Report demands more resources and national IT squad.
Report demands more resources and national IT squad. A report issued by the Metropolitan Police has admitted that, despite serious under-reporting of computer-related crime… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/01/uk-police-can-no-longer-cope-e-crime/

MySpace sues Spam King

Serial spammer faces more fines for abusing social system.
Serial spammer faces more fines for abusing social system. Regular spammer and lawsuit loser Scott Richter, last seen being sued by Infinite Monkeys, faces more legal and financial… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/01/myspace-sues-spam-king/

Fujacks hype incenses analysts

Chinese reports of 'major threat' thought unlikely.
Chinese reports of 'major threat' thought unlikely. Reports in the Chinese Shanghai Daily of a 'five-star cyber worm' which could be 'one of the most devastating cyber worms ever… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/01/fujacks-hype-incenses-analysts/

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