VB Blog

Alleged author of creepy FruitFly macOS malware arrested

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 11, 2018

A 28-year old man from Ohio has been arrested on suspicion of having created the mysterious FruitFly malware that targeted macOS and used it to spy on its victims.

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The threat and security product landscape in 2017

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 10, 2018

At the start of the new year, Virus Bulletin looks back at the threats seen in the 2017 and at the security products that are available to help mitigate them.

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Spamhaus report shows many botnet controllers look a lot like legitimate servers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 9, 2018

Spamhaus's annual report on botnet activity shows that botherders tend to use popular, legitimate hosting providers, domain registrars and top-level domains when setting up command-and-control servers.

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Tips on researching tech support scams

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 5, 2018

As tech support scammers continue to target the computer illiterate through cold calling, VB's Martijn Grooten uses his own experience to share some advice on how to investigate such scams.

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Meltdown and Spectre attacks mitigated by operating system updates

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 4, 2018

Just four days into the new year, two serious attacks in modern processors, dubbed Meltdown and Spectre, have been discovered. The attacks can be mitigated by patches to the operating system, but anti-virus software vendors need to make sure their products are compatible with the patches.

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Conference review: AVAR 2017

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 22, 2017

Martijn Grooten reports on the 20th AVAR conference, which took place earlier in December in Beijing, China.

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Conference review: Botconf 2017

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Dec 22, 2017

Virus Bulletin researchers report back from a very interesting fifth edition of Botconf, the botnet fighting conference.

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VB2017 videos on attacks against Ukraine

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 21, 2017

(In)security is a global issue that affects countries around the world, but in recent years none has been so badly hit as Ukraine. Today, we publish the videos of two VB2017 talks about attacks that hit Ukraine particularly badly: a talk by Alexander Adamov (NioGuard) on (Not)Petya and related attacks, and another by Robert Lipovsky and Anton Cherepanov (ESET) on Industroyer.

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Facebook helps you determine whether emails really came from its servers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 21, 2017

On its website, Facebook now shows which emails it has sent you recently, thus helping you to determine which emails are real, and which should be discarded as phishing.

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Vulnerability disclosure and botnet takedown not to be hindered by Wassenaar Arrangement

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 19, 2017

Clarification in the language of the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multilateral export control regime for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, means those involved in vulnerability disclosure or botnet takedown won't have to worry about acquiring an export licence.

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VB2006 a resounding success - VB2007 dates revealed

As another VB conference comes to a close, dates for next year's conference are revealed.
As another VB conference comes to a close, dates for next year's conference are revealed. VB2006, which took place in Montréal last week has been declared a resounding success by… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/resounding-success-dates-revealed/

McAfee stock scandal claims bosses

CEO leaves, president fired over financial problems.
CEO leaves, president fired over financial problems. Investigations into irregularities in McAfee's finances have led to the resignation of the company CEO and board chairman… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/mcafee-stock-scandal-claims-bosses/

Met warns Haxdoor victims

Police notify 2,300 their details have been stolen.
Police notify 2,300 their details have been stolen. London's Metropolitan Police has contacted over 2,300 computer users to inform them that their details have been found on a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/met-warns-haxdoor-victims/

Domain name threat to Spamhaus

Anti-spam system at risk of losing identity.
Anti-spam system at risk of losing identity. The recent case in which a US court found anti-spam organisation Spamhaus guilty of mislabelling a company as spammers may take a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/domain-name-threat-spamhaus/

False false positives

BitDefender defends reputation, three more VB100% awards granted.
BitDefender defends reputation, three more VB100% awards granted. Since the publication of the recent VB100% results, several of the files from the clean test set causing false… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/false-false-positives/

Hormel denied spam copyright

EU court rejects trademark dispute.
EU court rejects trademark dispute.Hormel Foods, maker of the SPAM pressed meat product, has lost a case brought before the European 'Office for Harmonization of Internal Markets'… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/hormel-denied-spam-copyright/

Eight years for Russian DoS blackmailers

Extortion gang sentenced for gambling site attacks.
Extortion gang sentenced for gambling site attacks. A team of three found guilty of computer crimes and extortion have been sentenced to eight years imprisonment by a Russian… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/eight-years-russian-dos-blackmailers/

Tesco to sell budget AV product

UK supermarket giant enters software market.
UK supermarket giant enters software market. The UK's largest supermarket chain, Tesco, has announced plans to sell and support its own-brand range of low-budget software products,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/tesco-sell-budget-av-product/

Stration worm building steadily

Mass-mailer evolving as botnets spread.
Mass-mailer evolving as botnets spread. The Stration mass-mailing worm, also called Warezov by some vendors, has been spreading steadily over the last few weeks, with the creators… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/stration-worm-building-steadily/

McAfee joins Vista battle

Newspaper ad attacks Microsoft plans.
Newspaper ad attacks Microsoft plans.McAfee has joined Symantec on the warpath against Microsoft's plans for its forthcoming Vista release of Windows. In a full-page advertisement… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/mcafee-joins-vista-battle/

Gmail slashes spam FPs

Hotmail lagging behind on mislabelled ham.
Hotmail lagging behind on mislabelled ham. 'Email marketing' firm Lyris has released a study of spam false positive filtering, showing a general downward trend in falsely blocked… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/gmail-slashes-spam-fps/

Web community fights phishing

Vote-based anti-phish system launched.
Vote-based anti-phish system launched. A new database of phishing sites has been launched, with an open-source, community focus. The system, labelled PhishTank, is run by web firm… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/web-community-fights-phishing/

Trend, McAfee vulnerabilities disclosed

ActiveX and ePO flaws covered by patches.
ActiveX and ePO flaws covered by patches.Trend Micro's flagship OfficeScan Corporate Edition 7.3 has suffered a vulnerability, allowing code execution from the local network. The… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/trend-mcafee-vulnerabilities-disclosed/

NCSA launches security month

Watchdog kicks off awareness offensive.
Watchdog kicks off awareness offensive. US online safety organisation the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) has launched its latest public information campaign, labelling… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/ncsa-launches-security-month/

More spammers nabbed by Earthlink

ISP helps FBI track down spamming duo.
ISP helps FBI track down spamming duo. Two men pleaded guilty to spamming in a Miami court last week. The pair were accused of sending over 25,000 emails over a period of a month… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/more-spammers-nabbed-earthlink/

IE punctured yet again

Newly patched browser vulnerable to more malware.
Newly patched browser vulnerable to more malware.Microsoft's beleaguered Internet Explorer browser is once again the subject of security worries, as another fully functioning… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/ie-punctured-yet-again/

Phishers indicted

Six men charged with masterminding a phishing operation.
Six men charged with masterminding a phishing operation. Six US men have been indicted on charges of masterminding a phishing operation. According to the indictment, the six men… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/phishers-indicted/

News round-up

September's goings on in the AV industry.
September's goings on in the AV industry. The top news stories of September were undoubtedly those concerning the VML vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Not only was… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/news-round/

October

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/

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 2006 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/10/october-issue-vb-published/

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