VB Blog

Updated botnet likely cause of surge in Tor traffic

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 5, 2013

New Tor version should help the network deal with increased traffic.

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Malware spoofing HTTP Host header to hide C&C communication

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 4, 2013

Traffic appears as requests to Google or Yandex.

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Phone support scams: an old scam with some new tricks

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 2, 2013

Files in Prefetch directory supposedly show malware infections.

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September issue of VB published

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 1, 2013

The September issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.

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VB2013 speaker spotlight

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Aug 30, 2013

We speak to Joe Blackbird and Bill Pfeifer about how anti-malware protection states affect infection rates.

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Kelihos checks machines' IP addresses against DNS blacklists

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Aug 29, 2013

Role of node in a botnet dependent on whether the IP address is blacklisted.

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New email header attempts to prevent damage of reissued email addresses

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Aug 27, 2013

Transactional emails not delivered if the account's owner has changed in the meantime.

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VB2013 speaker spotlight

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Aug 23, 2013

We speak to Gunter Ollmann about the growing need to assess corporate security defences from a hacker's perspective.

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VB2013 speaker spotlight

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Aug 16, 2013

We speak to Roman Unuchek about malicious redirection of mobile users, his research interests, and what he aims to bring to VB2013.

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DNSSEC glitch causes .gov sites to become inaccessible

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Aug 15, 2013

Name servers unable to distinguish faulty from rogue responses.

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VB2019 paper: Spoofing in the reeds with Rietspoof

In a VB2019 paper Avast researchers Jan Sirmer, Luigino Camastra and Adolf Středa revealed full details of the Rietspoof malware. Today we publish their paper and the recording of the presentation given by Jan and Luigino in London.
Spoofing in the reeds with Rietspoof Read the paper (HTML) Download the paper (PDF)     The Call for Papers for VB2020 in Dublin is open! Submit your abstract before… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2020/01/vb2019-paper-spoofing-reeds-rietspoof/

VB2017 video: Spora: the saga continues a.k.a. how to ruin your research in a week

Today, we publish the video of the VB2017 presentation by Avast researcher Jakub Kroustek and his former colleague Előd Kironský, now at ESET, who told the story of Spora, one of of the most prominent ransomware families of 2017.
First discovered at the beginning of the year, the Spora ransomware has become one of of the most prominent ransomware families of 2017, especially in Russia, a region it appears… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/12/vb2017-video-spora-saga-continues-k-how-ruin-your-research-week/

Malicious CCleaner update points to a major weakness in our infrastructure

Researchers from Cisco Talos have found that a recent version of the widely used CCleaner tool installed malware on the machine.
For the security community, 2017 might well be called the year of the update: two of the biggest security stories – the WannaCry outbreak and the Equifax breach – involved… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/09/malicious-ccleaner-update-points-major-weakness-our-infrastructure/

Avast acquires AVG for $1.3bn

Anti-virus vendor Avast has announced the acquisition of its rival AVG for 1.3 billion US dollars.
There was interesting news in the anti-virus world yesterday, as Avast announced the acquisition of its competitor AVG. Both companies were founded in the Czech Republic and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/07/avast-acquires-avg-13bn/

Avast launches bug bounty programme

Security firm offers reward for info on bugs.
Security firm offers reward for info on bugs. Security firm Avast Software, producer of the popular avast! free anti-virus solution, has announced a bug bounty programme to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/01/avast-launches-bug-bounty-programme/

774,000 Avast! pirates on 14-user licence

Wildly popular free solution not good enough for some.
Wildly popular free solution not good enough for some. Leading provider of free anti-malware products Avast Software has spotted that a single 14-user licence key, issued last… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/12/774-000-avast-pirates-14-user-licence/

Sophos joins free home AV crowd with Mac release

Business-focused firm takes first step into home-user arena.
Business-focused firm takes first step into home-user arena.Sophos has announced the release of a home-user edition of its Mac anti-malware solution, which is being given away free… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/11/sophos-joins-free-home-av-crowd-mac-release/

Avast gets $100m investment boost

Growth equity firm invests in Czech firm
Growth equity firm invests in Czech firmAvast Software, the Czech anti-malware firm famous for its free avast! software, has announced that growth equity investor Summit Partners… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/08/avast-gets-100m-investment-boost/

False positive problem hits avast! users

Human failure blamed for faulty update.
Human failure blamed for faulty update. A relatively small subsection of the massive user base for Alwil's ever-popular avast! products were hit by a string of false positives last… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2009/12/false-positive-problem-hits-avast-users/

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