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

MS sues UK spammer

Civil action avoids spam law technicalities.
Civil action avoids spam law technicalities.Microsoft has sued and reached an out-of-court settlement with UK spammer Paul Fox, after apparently despairing of finding any success… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/ms-sues-uk-spammer/

Subliminal message hidden in spam

Mail campaign aims to sneak into readers' subconscious minds.
Mail campaign aims to sneak into readers' subconscious minds. A spam campaign is using the classic 'submliminal message' technique in an attempt to implant thoughts in the minds of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/subliminal-message-hidden-spam/

Nine years for spam felon

Tough sentence upheld despite free-speech claims.
Tough sentence upheld despite free-speech claims. A US man convicted two years ago under the state of Virginia's anti-spam laws has lost an appeal against his conviction. The case,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/nine-years-spam-felon/

Word zero-day exploited

Trojan uses unpatched hole in office software.
Trojan uses unpatched hole in office software. At least one trojan has been seen in the wild exploiting a newly discovered vulnerability in Microsoft's Word 2000 software. The… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/word-zero-day-exploited/

Gromozon mystery clearing

Cleaner tool aims to remove sophisticated attack.
Cleaner tool aims to remove sophisticated attack. The shadowy blended threat known as Gromozon has slowly been gaining notoriety in recent weeks, particularly after some in-depth… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/gromozon-mystery-clearing/

Phishing on the rise

One in three malicious emails a phish, says MessageLabs.
One in three malicious emails a phish, says MessageLabs. A report on the current state of digital security has revealed that phishing scams constitute a growing danger to computer… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/phishing-rise/

Mobile snoopware labelled spyware

Future phone privacy threatened.
Future phone privacy threatened. Reports this week highlighted the problem of spyware running on mobile phones, and the consequences this could have for privacy. A commercial… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/mobile-snoopware-labelled-spyware/

New New Zealand spam laws to allow spam

Adjustments to laws may let 'non-commercial' spam continue.
Adjustments to laws may let 'non-commercial' spam continue. Recommendations have been made to dilute tough new anti-spam laws currently being debated by the New Zealand government.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/new-new-zealand-spam-laws-allow-spam/

CA in Windows FP

eTrust identifies critical file as virus.
eTrust identifies critical file as virus. A mistake at CA caused some trouble over the weekend, as its eTrust products started identifying part of the Windows local authentication… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/ca-windows-fp/

More MS06-040 worries

Vulnerability still causing problems.
Vulnerability still causing problems. There have been further reports of malware spreading using the MS06-040 vulnerability, announced and patched three weeks ago on Microsoft's… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/more-ms06-040-worries/

AT&T hack led to spearphish

Stolen details used to trick victims out of further info.
Stolen details used to trick victims out of further info. Transaction details stolen as part of last weekend's security breach of a shopping site run by US phone giant AT&T were… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/amp-t-hack-led-spearphish/

A fine, a curfew and a treasure hunt

Round up of the month's spammer penalties.
Round up of the month's spammer penalties. Kicking off a round-up of some of the anti-spam penalties issued worldwide this month, the Chinese government has made an underwhelming… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/fine-curfew-and-treasure-hunt/

September issue of VB published

The September issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The September issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The September 2006 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/september-issue-vb-published/

Spot that spammer

Quiz tests consumers' ability to identify spam causing sites.
Quiz tests consumers' ability to identify spam causing sites. Last month, McAfee invited web users to spot the undesirable website, in an eight-question quiz entitled: 'Can you… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/spot-spammer/

Nearly VB 100%

Near misses.
Near misses. In the recent Windows XP comparative review (see VB, June 2006, p.11), VB reported that VirusBuster failed to achieve the results required for a VB 100% award. After… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/nearly-vb-100/

Testing patience

Consumer Reports does it again.
Consumer Reports does it again. After having come in for a great deal of criticism in recent weeks over its AV testing methodology (see VB, September 2006, p.2), Consumer Reports… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/testing-patience/

Worm spreads via mobiles. Maybe.

PC malware thought capable of using phones as vector.
PC malware thought capable of using phones as vector.F-Secure has reported a new worm which attempts to spread via mobile phones. The 'Mobler' worm, once activated, copies itself… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/worm-spreads-mobiles-maybe/

September

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/

Future browsers battle phishing

Microsoft and Mozilla's upcoming new versions to include safety measures.
Microsoft and Mozilla's upcoming new versions to include safety measures. Pre-release versions of both Mozilla FireFox 2 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 have been unveiled,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/09/future-browsers-battle-phishing/

eBay phishing ups its game

Decent spelling and convincing design aim to trick users.
Decent spelling and convincing design aim to trick users. Users of eBay, perennial subject of phishing scams, are currently being targeted by a more than usually well-crafted… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2006/08/ebay-phishing-ups-its-game/

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