VB Blog

VB2019 paper: Fantastic Information and Where to Find it: A guidebook to open-source OT reconnaissance

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 22, 2019

A VB2019 paper by FireEye researcher Daniel Kapellmann Zafra explained how open source intelligence (OSINT) can be used to learn crucial details of the inner workings of many a system. Today we publish Daniel's paper and the recording of his presentation.

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VB2019 paper: Different ways to cook a crab: GandCrab Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) analysed in depth

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 21, 2019

Though active for not much longer than a year, GandCrab had been one of the most successful ransomware operations. In a paper presented at VB2019 in London, McAfee researchers John Fokker and Alexandre Mundo looked at the malware code, its evolution and the affiliate scheme behind it. Today we publish both their paper and the recording of their presentation.

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VB2019 paper: Domestic Kitten: an Iranian surveillance program

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 18, 2019

At VB2019 in London, Check Point researchers Aseel Kayal and Lotem Finkelstein presented a paper detailing an Iranian operation they named 'Domestic Kitten' that used Android apps for targeted surveillance. Today we publish their paper and the video of their presentation.

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VB2019 video: Discretion in APT: recent APT attack on crypto exchange employees

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 18, 2019

At VB2019 in London, LINE's HeungSoo Kang explained how cryptocurrency exchanges had been attacked using Firefox zero-days. Today, we publish the video of his presentation.

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VB2019 paper: DNS on fire

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 7, 2019

In a paper presented at VB2019, Cisco Talos researchers Warren Mercer and Paul Rascagneres looked at two recent attacks against DNS infrastructure: DNSpionage and Sea Turtle. Today we publish their paper and the recording of their presentation.

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German Dridex spam campaign is unfashionably large

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 6, 2019

VB has analysed a malicious spam campaign targeting German-speaking users with obfuscated Excel malware that would likely download Dridex but that mostly stood out through its size.

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Paper: Dexofuzzy: Android malware similarity clustering method using opcode sequence

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 5, 2019

We publish a paper by researchers from ESTsecurity in South Korea, who describe a fuzzy hashing algorithm for clustering Android malware datasets.

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Emotet continues to bypass many email security products

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 4, 2019

Having returned from a summer hiatus, Emotet is back targeting inboxes and, as seen in the VBSpam test lab, doing a better job than most other malicious campaigns at bypassing email security products.

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VB2019 paper: We need to talk - opening a discussion about ethics in infosec

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 1, 2019

Those working in the field of infosec are often faced with ethical dilemmas that are impossible to avoid. Today, we publish a VB2019 paper by Kaspersky researcher Ivan Kwiatkowski looking at ethics in infosec as well as the recording of Ivan's presentation.

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Stalkerware poses particular challenges to anti-virus products

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Oct 31, 2019

Malware used in domestic abuse situations is a growing threat, and the standard way for anti-virus products to handle such malware may not be good enough. But that doesn't mean there isn't an important role for anti-virus to play.

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Search blog

Study promotes challenge-response for anti-spam

Interactive system rated best blocker in questioned survey.
Interactive system rated best blocker in questioned survey. A study of anti-spam systems, using a bespoke scale to rate protection offered, has found the challenge-response method… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/study-promotes-challenge-response-anti-spam/

Ransomware returns

Trojan hides personal data, demands money with menaces.
Trojan hides personal data, demands money with menaces. A new version of a ransomware trojan has been sighted, recalling the warnings of two years ago when similar items first… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/ransomware-returns/

MessageLabs may be next takeover target

Managed services provider thought ripe for acquisition.
Managed services provider thought ripe for acquisition. Managed security specialist MessageLabs has been labelled a likely candidate for takeover by one of the industry giants, in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/messagelabs-may-be-next-takeover-target/

Microsoft files adware system patent

Ads could be targeted at users based on local system data.
Ads could be targeted at users based on local system data.Microsoft has filed a patent application for a new method of targeting advertising, using information on the contents of a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/microsoft-files-adware-system-patent/

Japan to tighten spam laws

Proposals to further restrict email and phone spamming.
Proposals to further restrict email and phone spamming. The Japanese Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry is planning a series of improvements to current anti-spam… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/japan-tighten-spam-laws/

26 phishing arrests in Italy

Police swoop on Poste Italiane spam scam gangs.
Police swoop on Poste Italiane spam scam gangs. In a first for Italy, the Guardia Di Finanza has made 26 arrests from two separate groups of phishing fraudsters, in the culmination… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/26-phishing-arrests-italy/

Security industry future looks solid, say analysts

Reports predict revenues will continue rising.
Reports predict revenues will continue rising. Analyst firm Global Industry Analysts (GIA) has released its latest report on the future of the IT security market, predicting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/security-industry-future-looks-solid-say-analysts/

Sony sues maker of MediaMax DRM system

CD protection developer accused of damaging Sony name.
CD protection developer accused of damaging Sony name.Sony BMG, the division of the Sony group embroiled in a long-running scandal after releasing a number of CDs using suspect… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/sony-sues-maker-mediamax-drm-system/

Symantec, AVG suffer problems

Vulnerabilities and false positives strike major products.
Vulnerabilities and false positives strike major products.Symantec users have been warned of some serious issues with archive handling, across a wide range of software produced by… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/symantec-avg-suffer-problems/

Microsoft opens security 'portal'

New site carries prevalence data, updates and malware resources.
New site carries prevalence data, updates and malware resources. Security teams at Microsoft have been busy this week, with the full unveiling of the Microsoft Malware Protection… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/microsoft-opens-security-portal/

7 flaws fixed in July Patch Tuesday release

Critical patches issued for Excel, Active Directory and .NET.
Critical patches issued for Excel, Active Directory and .NET.Microsoft has released a total of seven patches in its monthly 'Patch Tuesday' security update, with three of the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/7-flaws-fixed-july-patch-tuesday-release/

SEC brings case against pump-and-dump spammers

Scam spotted after spammed mail sent to SEC lawyer.
Scam spotted after spammed mail sent to SEC lawyer. Two men from Texas have been charged with a range of spam and fraud offences after a 20-month campaign using botnets to spam… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/sec-brings-case-against-pump-and-dump-spammers/

Controversy over IE-to-Firefox exploit

MS and Mozilla in row over blame for cross-browser attack.
MS and Mozilla in row over blame for cross-browser attack. An exploit which involves browsing to a malicious website using Internet Explorer, but then launches an attack via a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/controversy-over-ie-firefox-exploit/

Spoof Spamhaus ads spammed out

Mail campaign claims to promote spam fighters.
Mail campaign claims to promote spam fighters. Spam-fighting organisation Spamhaus has been subjected to an attack on its reputation this week, with a sizeable campaign of spams… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/spoof-spamhaus-ads-spammed-out/

Google buys Postini

Managed security service snapped up by giant.
Managed security service snapped up by giant. Ever-expanding web giant Google has continued its growth into both security and software-as-service spheres with the $625 million… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/google-buys-postini/

Trojan using webmail to send spam

Captcha systems possibly cracked to automate account creation.
Captcha systems possibly cracked to automate account creation.BitDefender has reported a new trojan attempting to bypass security measures on leading webmail systems Hotmail and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/trojan-using-webmail-send-spam/

Kaspersky sues Rising

Feuding AV firms to fight it out in court.
Feuding AV firms to fight it out in court.Kaspersky's Chinese subsidiary has brought a court case against local rival Rising, after an escalating war of words between the two… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/kaspersky-sues-rising/

Fake malware infection alerts spammed out

Latest spam run masquerades as malware warning and fix.
Latest spam run masquerades as malware warning and fix. The group behind last week's Fourth of July spams are thought to be behind another campaign this week, with messages… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/fake-malware-infection-alerts-spammed-out/

Fourth of July targeted by trojan spam

Celebration card emails carry links to malware.
Celebration card emails carry links to malware. A further wave of greetings-card spam has been widely seeded, in the wake of considerable Storm Worm activity in the last week, with… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/fourth-july-targeted-trojan-spam/

Battle over Blackberry spyware threat

Spy tool for popular device claims to be legitimate.
Spy tool for popular device claims to be legitimate. The expansion of the FlexiSpy mobile device snooping software, originally available only for the Symbian platform but with… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/battle-over-blackberry-spyware-threat/

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