VB Blog

VB2019 paper: A vine climbing over the Great Firewall: a long-term attack against China

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Nov 28, 2019

Today we publish a VB2019 paper from Lion Gu and Bowen Pan from the Qi An Xin Threat Intelligence Center in China in which they analysed an APT group dubbed 'Poison Vine', which targeted various government, military and research institutes in China.

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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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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/

Batch of Dutch MP3 players ships with malware

Worm included as unwanted extra for music lovers.
Worm included as unwanted extra for music lovers. A shipment of MP3 players sold in recent months by Dutch firm Victory has been found to be infected with the Fujacks worm, which… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/01/batch-dutch-mp3-players-ships-malware/

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/

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