VB Blog

Research shows web security products perform well against exploit kits

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 24, 2016

Research by Virus Bulletin, in which five web security products were served 54 live exploit kits, shows that the products blocked between 87 and 100 per cent of the kits.

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Throwback Thursday: Olympic Games

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Aug 2, 2016

In 1994, along with the Olympic Games came an Olympic virus, from a group of Swedish virus authors calling themselves ‘Immortal Riot’. We look back at Mikko Hyppönen's analysis in the VB archive.

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VB2016 call for last-minute papers opened, discounts announced

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Aug 1, 2016

Announcing the VB2016 call for last-minute papers and a number of discounts on the conference registration rate.

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Guest Blog: Malicious Scripts Gaining Prevalence in Brazil

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jul 28, 2016

In the run up to VB2016, we invited the conference sponsors to write guest posts for our blog. In the second of this series, ESET's Matías Porolli writes about malicious Visual Basic and JavaScript gaining prevalence in Brazil.

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Romanian university website compromised to serve Neutrino exploit kit

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 28, 2016

The website of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy has been compromised to inject a hidden iframe into the site's source code that serves the Neutrino exploit kit and may infect visitors with ransomware.

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It's 2016. Can we stop using MD5 in malware analyses?

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 26, 2016

While there are no actually risks involved in using MD5s in malware analyses, it reinforces bad habits and we should all start using SHA-256 instead.

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Throwback Thursday: Holding the Bady

Posted by   Helen Martin on   Jul 21, 2016

In 2001, ‘Code Red’ caused White House administrators to change the IP address of the official White House website, and even penetrated Microsoft’s own IIS servers.

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Paper: The Journey of Evasion Enters Behavioural Phase

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 20, 2016

A new paper by FireEye researcher Ankit Anubhav provides an overview of evasion techniques applied by recently discovered malware.

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Guest blog: Espionage toolkit uncovered targeting Central and Eastern Europe

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Jul 15, 2016

Recently, ESET researchers uncovered a new espionage toolkit targeting targeting Central and Eastern Europe. They provide some details in a guest post.

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Avast acquires AVG for $1.3bn

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jul 8, 2016

Anti-virus vendor Avast has announced the acquisition of its rival AVG for 1.3 billion US dollars.

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Search blog

Ransom trojan demands Windows re-activation

Criminals make money through calls to supposedly free phone number.
Criminals make money through calls to supposedly free phone number. A new piece of ransomware has been discovered that shows the PC user a blue screen and asks them to re-activate… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2011/04/ransom-trojan-demands-windows-re-activation/

Android SMS trojan goes wild

Premium-rate text scam shows growing cracks in smart phone security.
Premium-rate text scam shows growing cracks in smart phone security. The first known SMS trojan affecting smart phones running Google's Android operating system has been observed… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/08/android-sms-trojan-goes-wild/

AV-Comparatives publishes malware removal test

16 products challenged to remove selection of tricky infections.
16 products challenged to remove selection of tricky infections. Independent testing body AV-Comparatives has published its latest set of test results, a comparison of how well… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2009/10/av-comparatives-publishes-malware-removal-test/

AMTSO members summit covers controversial issues

Expert body gets to grips with string of difficult subjects.
Expert body gets to grips with string of difficult subjects. A meeting of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organisation (AMTSO) took place this week, with leading experts from… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2009/10/amtso-members-summit-covers-controversial-issues/

Rogue AV claims to send money to environmental causes

'Green AV' best added to blacklist to avoid red faces.
'Green AV' best added to blacklist to avoid red faces. In an attempt to lure users into buying it, the rogue anti-malware product Green AV claims to send US$2 per purchased product… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2009/09/rogue-av-claims-send-money-environmental-causes/

Anti-Obama sentiments used in spam campaign

'DDoS software' turns out to be malware.
'DDoS software' turns out to be malware. In a new spam campaign users are being urged to participate in a DDoS attack on the website of American president Barack Obama in protest… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2009/08/anti-obama-sentiments-used-spam-campaign/

Valentine's lures lead to infection

Predicted spate of romance hooks under way.
Predicted spate of romance hooks under way. After numerous security watchers predicted a barrage of phishing and malware attacks associated with Valentine's Day this week, the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2009/02/valentine-s-lures-lead-infection/

Google shows off in-house browser beta

Open-source 'Chrome' promises security as well as efficiency.
Open-source 'Chrome' promises security as well as efficiency. Ever-expanding web giant Google has released an early version of its own browser, developed in house but under… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/09/google-shows-house-browser-beta/

Malware writing teacher revives old rows

College instructor claims to be fighting industry monopoly.
College instructor claims to be fighting industry monopoly. As announced to much controversy last year, a course in computer security at Sonoma State University, California, is… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/08/malware-writing-teacher-revives-old-rows/

Trojan-to-worm automation tool spotted

GUI gizmo adds extra spreading menace to any malware.
GUI gizmo adds extra spreading menace to any malware. Researchers at Panda have discovered a simple and colourful graphical application designed to add basic worm techniques to… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/06/trojan-worm-automation-tool-spotted/

Security experts gather in Europe

Anti-malware insights pooled at AMTSO, CARO and EICAR meetings.
Anti-malware insights pooled at AMTSO, CARO and EICAR meetings. Many of the world's leading anti-malware and security experts came together in the past week, at a string of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/05/security-experts-gather-europe/

China-Tibet row spills over into malware attacks

Both sides of debate targeted to spread malicious code.
Both sides of debate targeted to spread malicious code. With the political row over China's involvement in Tibet continuing to make the headlines, cybercriminals have been as quick… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/04/china-tibet-row-spills-over-malware-attacks/

IE8 to include malware filtering

New features list includes upgrade to security provision.
New features list includes upgrade to security provision. The next version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser, IE8, could include malware detection as standard, in an… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/03/ie8-include-malware-filtering/

Showy malware pushes rogue anti-malware product

MonaRonaDona trojan leads searchers to remover scam.
MonaRonaDona trojan leads searchers to remover scam. An infection which advertises its presence using the name 'MonaRonaDona' is leading victims to search for a cure - and many of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/03/showy-malware-pushes-rogue-anti-malware-product/

Malware going local

Report sees trend toward greater localisation of threats.
Report sees trend toward greater localisation of threats.McAfee's latest Sage report focuses on increased localisation in malware, with spam, phishing and malcode all showing great… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/02/malware-going-local/

Storm Valentines run under way

Seasonal spam and malware barrage gets going.
Seasonal spam and malware barrage gets going. The expected run of 'Storm' spams, pushing links to their latest line of malware disguised as Valentine's messages, has begun, with… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/02/storm-valentines-run-under-way/

Fake security blogs lead to malware

Blogger sites play on fears to draw victims to porn, trojans.
Blogger sites play on fears to draw victims to porn, trojans. According to a report from Aladdin, numerous fake security blogs have been set up on the Google-owned Blogger blogging… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/02/fake-security-blogs-lead-malware/

Malcode from Mexico and Africa predicted to boom

Developing world expected to contribute heavily to future cybercrime.
Developing world expected to contribute heavily to future cybercrime. A report from F-Secure has predicted increasing levels of malware creation and operation in 'developing'… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/malcode-mexico-and-africa-predicted-boom/

Usual fare for holiday season

Storm ecards and social site spyware mark unsurprising year end.
Storm ecards and social site spyware mark unsurprising year end. With large portions of the globe celebrating various festivals over the past few weeks, an expected upsurge in… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/usual-fare-holiday-season/

SQL attack hacks wide range of sites

CA among victims of major attack linking sites to malware.
CA among victims of major attack linking sites to malware. Huge numbers of legitimate websites - perhaps as many as 100,000 according to some reports - fell victim to hackers… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/sql-attack-hacks-wide-range-sites/

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