Virus Bulletin - December 2013


Editor: Helen Martin

Technical Consultant: John Hawes

Technical Editor: Morton Swimmer

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

2013-12-02


Comment

Surveillance and servility: is the AV industry a puppet of statecraft?

‘Surveillance has been an instrument of statecraft for millennia.' Samir Mody, K7 Computing

Samir Mody - K7 Computing, India

News

Crystal ball gazing

Round-up of some of the security industry's predictions for the year ahead.

Helen Martin - Virus Bulletin, UK

Call for papers: VB2014 Seattle

Seeking submissions for VB2014 in Seattle.

Helen Martin - Virus Bulletin, UK

Obituary

In memoriam: Péter Ször 1970-2013

The untimely death of security researcher Péter Ször sent shockwaves across anti-malware community last month. Some of those who knew him best pay tribute to a brilliant mind and a true gentleman.

Helen Martin - Virus Bulletin, UK

Malware analyses

Onkod: a downloader and its 'downloadee'

Downloaders are usually small and simple files whose goal is purely to download the ‘main course’ of a malware infection. The downloaded file (or ‘downloadee’) invariably has more features and functionalities than the downloader. Raul Alvarez looks at the W32/Onkod downloader and its downloaded file.

Raul Alvarez - Fortinet, Canada

Fake KakaoTalk security plug-in

The Android/FakeKakao trojan monitors incoming and outgoing SMS messages, sends SMS spam and gathers sensitive information as well as incorporating anti-debugging and anti-emulator tricks and disabling some security software. Zhe Li and Dong Xie take a closer look.

Zhe Li - Fortinet, China & Dong Xie - Fortinet, China

Hands in the cookie JAR

Viruses for Java are relatively rare, and parasitic viruses for Java are even rarer. The Java/Handjar virus infects Java applications by placing its virus code inside a JAR file and including a reference to the virus class file. Peter Ferrie has the details.

Peter Ferrie - Microsoft, USA

Commentary

The past and future of international cooperation

Wout de Natris urges parliamentarians to facilitate cooperation across borders and asks: why is it necessary, in 2013, to give up a little bit of sovereignty and territoriality?

Wout de Natris - De Natris Consult, The Netherlands

Spotlight

Greetz from academe: Santa's got a gun

In the latest of his ‘Greetz from Academe’ series, highlighting some of the work going on in academic circles, John Aycock looks at a tool designed to detect JavaScript containing malicious evasions.

John Aycock - University of Calgary, Canada

Conference report

EICAR 2013: Data protection <> data security?

Eddy Willems presents a round up of the 22nd EICAR Conference, held in Hannover last month.

Eddy Willems - G Data and EICAR, Belgium

Comparative review

VB100 comparative review on Windows 8.1

In this test the VB test team made their first visit to the all-new Windows 8.1 platform - which proved challenging for all participants, with both minor irritations and major issues affecting product performance. John Hawes has all the details.

John Hawes - Virus Bulletin

Calendar

Anti-malware industry events

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


 

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