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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Search blog

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/

Kaspersky teams up with Bit9

Whitelisting knowledgebase to be used in future security products.
Whitelisting knowledgebase to be used in future security products. A strategic partnership has been announced between Kaspersky Labs and application control specialist Bit9. The… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/11/kaspersky-teams-bit9/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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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