VB Blog

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

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 30, 2017

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 attackers. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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WannaCry shows we need to understand why organizations don't patch

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 17, 2017

Perhaps the question we should be asking about WannaCry is not "why do so many organizations allow unpatched machines to exist on their networks?" but "why doesn't patching work reasonably well most of the time?"

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Modern security software is not necessarily powerless against threats like WannaCry

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 15, 2017

The WannaCry ransomware has affected many organisations around the world, making it probably the worst and most damaging of its kind. But modern security is not necessarily powerless against such threats.

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Throwback Thursday: CARO: A personal view

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 11, 2017

This week sees the 11th International CARO Workshop taking place in Krakow, Poland – a prestigious annual meeting of anti-malware and security experts. As a founding member of CARO, Fridrik Skulason was well placed, in August 1994, to shed some light on the organization, to explain in detail CARO's main activities and functions, as well as the reasons behind its strict membership regulations.

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VB2016 paper: Uncovering the secrets of malvertising

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 10, 2017

Malicious advertising, a.k.a. malvertising, has evolved tremendously over the past few years to take a central place in some of today’s largest web-based attacks. It is by far the tool of choice for attackers to reach the masses but also to target them with infinite precision and deliver such payloads as ransomware. Today, we publish a paper presented at VB2016 in Denver by Malwarebytes researchers Jérôme Segura and Chris Boyd, in which they look at the advertising ecosystem, how it is used, and at what techniques are being utilised to spread malware

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Throwback Thursday: Tools of the DDoS Trade

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 4, 2017

As DDoS attacks become costlier to fix and continue to increase in both number and diversity, we turn back the clock to 2000, when Aleksander Czarnowski took a look at the DDoS tools of the day.

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VB2016 paper: Building a local passiveDNS capability for malware incident response

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 4, 2017

At VB2016, Splunk researchers Kathy Wang and Steve Brant presented a Splunk app that can be used to locally collect passive DNS data. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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VB2016 video: Last-minute paper: A malicious OS X cocktail served from a tainted bottle

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 28, 2017

In a VB2016 last-minute presentation, ESET researchers Peter Kalnai and Martin Jirkal looked at the OS X malware threats KeRanger and Keydnap, that both spread through a compromised BitTorrent client. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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Consumer spyware: a serious threat with a different threat model

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 25, 2017

Consumer spyware is a growing issue and one that can have serious consequences: its use is increasingly common in domestic violence. But do our threat models consider the attacker with physical access to, and inside knowledge of the victim?

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VB2016 paper: Debugging and monitoring malware network activities with Haka

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 24, 2017

In their VB2016 paper, Stormshield researchers Benoît Ancel and Mehdi Talbi introduced Haka, an open-source language to monitor, debug and control malicious network traffic. Both their paper and the video recording of their presentation are now available to read/view on www.virusbulletin.com.

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Search blog

Attempted virus fumbles attack on F-Secure

Flawed file-infector fails to frighten Finns.
Flawed file-infector fails to frighten Finns. A highly buggy intended virus has been found to include an attempt to launch a DDoS attack on the websites of Finnish security firm… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/attempted-virus-fumbles-attack-f-secure/

Symantec warns of rigged Google search links

Advanced search options lead clickers straight to junk sites.
Advanced search options lead clickers straight to junk sites. Spammers have found a novel use for Google's advanced search options and 'I'm Feeling Lucky' function, using a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/symantec-warns-rigged-google-search-links/

Supermarket sweep

Phishers almost get away with $10m scam.
Phishers almost get away with $10m scam. Court documents have revealed that phishers nearly managed a whopping $10 million supermarket (bank account) sweep earlier this year.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/supermarket-sweep/

November

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/

The sound of spam

Firm reports 15 million MP3 spams in October.
Firm reports 15 million MP3 spams in October. Last month saw pump-and-dump spammers try out yet another file type for getting their message across to the gullible: MP3 audio… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/sound-spam/

Melissa has users CAPTCHA'd

Spammers offer strip show for correctly completed CAPTCHAs.
Spammers offer strip show for correctly completed CAPTCHAs. Spammers have spotted a new opportunity for getting humans to help them get past the CAPTCHA tests put in place to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/melissa-has-users-captcha-d/

E-crime unit to get government funding?

UK government responds to House of Lords call for better policing of the Internet.
UK government responds to House of Lords call for better policing of the Internet. The UK government has indicated that it may set up a new national police unit dedicated to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/e-crime-unit-get-government-funding/

Phishing trojan targets Mac OSX

DNS hijack disguised as codec threatens Apple systems.
DNS hijack disguised as codec threatens Apple systems. A new trojan affecting Apple's Mac OSX operating system - a relative rarity in the malware world - has been seen in the wild.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/phishing-trojan-targets-mac-osx/

VB100 NetWare update

Updated results for VB100 NetWare comparative.
Updated results for VB100 NetWare comparative.VB regrets that some erroneous results were recorded for Symantec AntiVirus 10 in last month's comparative review on Novell NetWare… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/netware-update/

November issue of VB published

The November issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.
The November issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download. The November 2007 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/november-issue-vb-published/

FTC demands more power against spyware

Prosecutions and fines needed to deter badware makers.
Prosecutions and fines needed to deter badware makers. Representatives of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the consumer protection body which has seen some success in the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/ftc-demands-more-power-against-spyware/

McAfee acquires website trust mark firm

ScanAlert certification system bought for $51 million.
ScanAlert certification system bought for $51 million.McAfee has bought ScanAlert, the firm behind the 'Hacker Safe' trust mark logo, carried by some 75,000 websites to indicate… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/mcafee-acquires-website-trust-mark-firm/

Storm spams promise spooky Halloween

Tricks not treats as skeleton game emails link to attack.
Tricks not treats as skeleton game emails link to attack. The 'Storm' attack has once again taken advantage of a popular cultural occasion to spam out the latest wave of links to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/storm-spams-promise-spooky-halloween/

Spyware maker Direct Revenue closes doors

Notorious company forced out of business by legal actions.
Notorious company forced out of business by legal actions. After numerous lawsuits and fines, adware and spyware maker Direct Revenue is no more. The firm behind a swathe of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/spyware-maker-direct-revenue-closes-doors/

Trend Micro invests in leak-prevention firm

Further data security added to portfolio.
Further data security added to portfolio. Security giant Trend Micro has acquired California-based data leak prevention specialist Provilla, to add its data protection technologies… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/trend-micro-invests-leak-prevention-firm/

Microsoft unveils January-June threat report

Security analysis shows rise in vulnerabilities, trojans and scamware.
Security analysis shows rise in vulnerabilities, trojans and scamware.Microsoft has released its latest 'Security Intelligence Report', covering the first half of 2007, showing a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/microsoft-unveils-january-june-threat-report/

PDF trojan exploits Adobe flaw

Reader/Acrobat vulnerability targeted day after patch release.
Reader/Acrobat vulnerability targeted day after patch release. A vulnerability in Adobe's popular PDF-viewing software Adobe Reader and editing suite Acrobat, first reported a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/pdf-trojan-exploits-adobe-flaw/

RealPlayer zero-day flaw exploited

Manufacturer responds rapidly to serious security hole.
Manufacturer responds rapidly to serious security hole. A zero-day vulnerability in the popular media playing system RealPlayer was spotted being exploited in the wild late last… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/realplayer-zero-day-flaw-exploited/

Latest VB100 announced

Windows 2000 Professional products to be tested.
Windows 2000 Professional products to be tested. VB has issued a call for submissions for the latest VB100 comparative review, which will measure the performance of products for… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/latest-announced/

Pump-and-dumpers move on to MP3 spam

Audio files latest stock pushing tactic.
Audio files latest stock pushing tactic. Pump-and-dump spammers have moved on from image spam, PDF spam and Excel spreadsheet spam to try out yet another file type: MP3 audio… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/10/pump-and-dumpers-move-mp3-spam/

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