Virus Bulletin - January 2010


Editor: Helen Martin

Technical Consultant: John Hawes

Technical Editor: Morton Swimmer

Consulting Editors: Ian Whalley, Nick FitzGerald, Richard Ford, Edward Wilding

2009-10-01


Comment

The web of darkness

'There are now over 100 times more infected websites on the Internet than three years ago.' Costin Raiu, Kaspersky Lab.

Costin Raiu - Kaspersky Lab, Romania

News

VB2011 details announced - viva España!

VB conference to visit sunny Spain in 2011.

Helen Martin - Virus Bulletin, UK

Chilly celebrations for Kaspersky at south pole

Kaspersky-sponsored expedition reaches South Pole.

Helen Martin - Virus Bulletin, UK

’Twas the season to go phishing

Phishing attacks rise in run up to the holidays.

Helen Martin - Virus Bulletin, UK

Malware prevalence report

November 2009

The Virus Bulletin prevalence table is compiled monthly from virus reports received by Virus Bulletin; both directly, and from other companies who pass on their statistics.


Malware analysis

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Fooperman!

Peter Ferrie describes W32/Fooper, a virus that uses the FPU to magically transform a block of data in to executable code.

Peter Ferrie - Microsoft, USA

Call for papers

Calling all speakers: VB2010 Vancouver

VB is seeking submissions from those wishing to present papers at VB2010 - the 20th Virus Bulletin International Conference in Vancouver.

Helen Martin - Virus Bulletin, UK

Book review

Social science meets computer science

Paul Baccas reviews 'Technological Turf Wars: A Case Study of the Computer Antivirus Industry', by Jessica Johnston.

Paul Baccas - Sophos, UK

Spotlight

AMTSOlutely fabulous

Since its inception, the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) has outlined its charter, held regular meetings, produced a range of standards documents and continues to work towards raising the overall standard of testing. However, there is still confusion as to what the organization does and stands for. David Harley provides his take on what AMTSO has achieved so far, and what might lie ahead.

David Harley - ESET, UK

Feature

The top ten spam, malware and e-security stories of 2009

2009 was filled with security stories involving spam, malware and cybercrime in general. Terry Zink takes a look back at the ten biggest newsmakers.

Terry Zink - Microsoft, USA

Product review

Alwil avast! 5

Version 4 of Alwil's hugely popular avast! has been around for more than six years, and the prospect of a major new release has brought growing levels of excitement and anticipation among the product’s huge legions of fans. The VB lab team got their hands on a late-stage beta of the brand new product - and were very impressed with what they found. John Hawes has the full details.

John Hawes - Virus Bulletin, UK

Comparative review

VBSpam comparative review

The first VBSpam comparative review of the new decade saw 15 products on the test bench and some changes to the award criteria. Martijn Grooten has all the details.

Martijn Grooten - Virus Bulletin, UK

Calendar

Anti-malware industry events

Must-attend events in the anti-malware industry - dates, locations and further details.


 

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