VB Blog

Registration for VB2018 now open!

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 8, 2018

Registration for VB2018, the 28th International Virus Bulletin conference, is now open, with an early bird rate available until 1 July.

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RSA 2018: the good, the bad, the ugly, the great and the fantastic

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 1, 2018

In April, VB's Martijn Grooten attended the RSA Expo in San Francisco. He shares his views on the expo and the industry.

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Standalone product test: Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 30, 2018

There are a number of security solutions on the market that are designed to increase the default protection provided by Office 365. One such product is the newly launched Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Office 365. Virus Bulletin was commissioned to measure the effectiveness of the Kaspersky product compared to the Office 365 baseline protection.

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GravityRAT malware takes your system's temperature

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 27, 2018

The GravityRAT malware, discovered by Cisco Talos researchers, gives some interesting insight into modern malware development.

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$150k in cryptocurrency stolen through combined BGP-DNS hijack

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 25, 2018

A BGP hijack was used to take over some of Amazon's DNS infrastructure, which was then used to serve a phishing site to users of the MyEtherWallet service.

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Security-focused routers may help to mitigate IoT threats

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 24, 2018

Various security companies are offering security-focused routers. This is a good trend and may help mitigate a lot of the issues that come with the IoT.

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The road to IPv6 is generally smooth but contains a few potholes

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Apr 23, 2018

Most of the switch from IPv4 to IPv6 will happen seamlessly. But we cannot assume it won't introduce new security issues.

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New paper: Powering the distribution of Tesla stealer with PowerShell and VBA macros

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 19, 2018

Since their return four years ago, Office macros have been one of the most common ways to spread malware. Today, we publish a research paper which looks in detail at a campaign in which VBA macros are used to execute PowerShell code, which in turn downloads the Tesla information-stealing trojan.

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VB2017 paper: Android reverse engineering tools: not the usual suspects

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 18, 2018

Within a few years, Android malware has grown from a relatively small threat to a huge problem involving more than three million new malware samples a year. Axelle Apvrille, one of the world's leading Android malware researchers, will deliver a workshop on Android reverse engineering at VB2018 in Montreal this October. Last year, Axelle presented a paper at VB2017 on some of the less common tools that can be used to reverse engineer Android malware. Today, we publish both the paper and the recording of Axelle's presentation.

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Patch early, patch often, but don't blindly trust every 'patch'

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 16, 2018

Compromised websites are being used to serve fake Flash Player uploads that come with a malicious payload.

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Save the dates: VB2018 to take place 3-5 October 2018

Though the location will remain a secret for a few more months, we are pleased to announce the dates for VB2018, the 28th Virus Bulletin International Conference.
While we hope that you have already circled the dates of 4-6 October 2017 in your agendas, and that you will join us and security experts from around the world for VB2017 in Spain… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/save-dates-vb2018-take-place-3-5-october-2018/

Review: BSides Athens 2017

The second edition of BSides Athens saw a great and varied programme presented in the Greek capital. VB's Martijn Grooten was pleased to attend.
BSides London has been a regular fixture on the Virus Bulletin agenda for the past few years, but its international audience (thanks to the event being held in parallel with… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/review-bsides-athens-2017/

Let's not help attackers by spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt

Spreading 'FUD' in the wake of cyber-attacks is never a good idea. But it's even worse when this might be one of the attackers' implicit goals.
A week and a half after the outbreak of (Not)Petya, we are still not 100% certain about the motivation of the attackers. Was it a (failed) attempt to extort money from a large… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/lets-not-help-attackers-spreading-fear-uncertainty-and-doubt/

Calling next-gen security researchers: student discount for VB2017 announced

For the third year in a row, we have set aside a limited number of student tickets for the Virus Bulletin conference, to allow 'next-generation' security researchers to experience one of the most important gatherings of security researchers around the wor…
Next-gen firewalls, next-gen anti-virus. At Virus Bulletin, we follow the 'next-gen' trends with interest, if only because behind the marketing there is often very interesting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/calling-next-gen-security-researchers-student-discount-vb2017-announced/

Nominations opened for fourth Péter Szőr Award

Virus Bulletin has opened nominations for the fourth annual Péter Szőr Award, for the best piece of technical security research published between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017.
Virus Bulletin is seeking nominations for the fourth annual Péter Szőr Award. The award was inaugurated during the VB2014 conference, in honour of late security researcher and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/nominations-opened-fourth-peter-szor-award/

VB2016 paper: BlackEnergy – what we really know about the notorious cyber attacks

According to some researchers, there is some evidence linking the recent (Not)Petya attacks with the BlackEnergy group - which became infamous for its targeted attacks against the Ukraine. At VB2016, ESET researchers Anton Cherepanov and Robert Lipovsky s…
In a blog post published on Friday, ESET researcher Anton Cherepanov provides evidence linking last week's (Not)Petya attacks to the BlackEnergy group; Kaspersky researchers also… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/07/vb2016-paper-blackenergy-what-we-really-know-about-notorious-cyber-attacks/

Security advice in the wake of WannaCry and Not(Petya)

As WannaCry and (Not)Petya have shown, malware attacks can do a lot of damage. So is staying safe just a case of following good security advice?
The recent outbreaks of WannaCry and (Not)Petya have left many users and organizations understandably confused about what to do and how to fend off such attacks. Thankfully,… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/security-advice-wake-wannacry-and-notpetya/

48 hours after initial reports, many mysteries remain around the latest ransomware/wiper threat

Whether you call it Petya, NotPetya, Nyetya or Petna, there are still many mysteries surrounding the malware that has been causing havoc around the world.
"What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet" Shakespeare's philosophising can equally be applied to malware, and whether you call it… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/48-hours-after-initial-reports-many-mysteries-around-latest-ransomwarewiper-threat-remain/

VB2017 Early Bird discount to expire this week

This week, the Early Bird discount for VB2017 comes to an end - so, for a 10% saving on the cost of full price registration, make sure you register now!
"Hundreds of businesses, both large and small, have suffered from the handiwork of the virus writers. It is now clear that a sabotage mentality exists and new computer viruses… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/vb2017-early-bird-discount-expire-week/

VB2016 paper: Steam stealers: it's all fun and games until someone's account gets hijacked

Last year, Kaspersky Lab researcher Santiago Pontiroli and PwC's Bart Parys presented a VB2016 paper analysing the malicious threats faced by users of the Steam online gaming platform, and highlighting how organized criminals are making money with these p…
The online games market is huge, and the Steam platform is a huge player in that market. Users registered on the Steam platform use their credit cards to buy content, and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/vb2016-paper-steam-stealers-its-all-fun-and-games-until-someones-account-gets-hijacked/

Research paper shows it may be possible to distinguish malware traffic using TLS

Researchers at Cisco have published a paper describing how it may be possible to use machine learning to distinguish malware command-and-control traffic using TLS from regular enterprise traffic, and to classify malware families based on their encrypted C…
Researchers at Cisco have published a paper (PDF) describing how it may be possible to use machine learning to distinguish malware command-and-control (C&C) traffic using TLS from… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/research-paper-shows-it-may-be-possible-distinguish-malware-traffic-using-tls/

Is CVE-2017-0199 the new CVE-2012-0158?

After five years of exploitation in a wide variety of attacks, CVE-2012-0158 may have found a successor in CVE-2017-0199, which is taking the Office exploit scene by storm.
There are two good reasons not to be concerned about CVE-2012-0158, an RTF handling vulnerability in Microsoft Office. First, the vulnerability was patched more than five years… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/cve-2017-0199-new-cve-2012-0158/

Review: BSides London 2017

Virus Bulletin was a proud sponsor of BSides London 2017 - Martijn Grooten reports on a great event.
This month, for the first time in its 28-year history, Virus Bulletin became the sponsor of another industry conference: BSides London. I have to admit to having been more than a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/review-bsides-london-2017/

VB2017: one of the most international security conferences

It is well known that the problem of cybersecurity is a global one that affects users worldwide - but it's also one that has some unique local flavours. With speakers representing at least 24 countries, VB2017 is one of the most international security con…
The 40 talks confirmed thus far for the VB2017 conference programme will be delivered by speakers that are based in 18 different countries across five continents. If you also… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/vb2017-one-most-international-security-conferences/

VB2016 paper: Diving into Pinkslipbot's latest campaign

Qakbot or Qbot, is a banking trojan that makes the news every once in a while and was the subject of a VB2016 paper by Intel Security researchers Sanchit Karve, Guilherme Venere and Mark Olea. In it, they provided a detailed analysis of the Pinkslipbot/Qa…
Pinkslipbot, also known as Qakbot or Qbot, is a banking trojan that makes the news every once in a while, yet never seems to get the attention of the world's Zbots and Dridexes. I… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/vb2016-paper-diving-pinkslipbots-latest-campaign/

Book review: Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet

VB Editor Martijn Grooten reviews Finn Brunton's book 'Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet'.
This review, by VB Editor Martijn Grooten, was originally published in the Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICON). It is republished with… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/book-review-spam-shadow-history-internet/

Virus Bulletin to sponsor BSides London

Virus Bulletin is proud to be a Silver sponsor of BSides London next week; we look forward to the event and to meeting many security professionals.
When VB'91, the inaugural Virus Bulletin conference, took place (in 1991), there were few security conferences on the scene and there were more virus researchers than computer… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/06/virus-bulletin-sponsor-bsides-london/

VB2016 video: Last-minute paper: Malicious proxy auto-configs: an easy way to harvest banking credentials

In a VB2016 last-minute presentation, Jaromír Horejší and Jan Širmer looked at Retefe, a trojan that has targeted banks in several European countries and used malicious proxy auto-config filesto redirect users' traffic to a server controlled by the attack…
"Much media attention is given to imminent and visible threats, like ransomware. Other threats remain under the radar and often go unnoticed." This part of Jaromír Horejší and Jan… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/may/vb2016-video-last-minute-paper-malicious-proxy-auto-configs-easy-way-harvest-banking-credentials/

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