VB Blog

Virus Bulletin to sponsor BSides London

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jun 1, 2017

Virus Bulletin is proud to be a Silver sponsor of BSides London next week; we look forward to the event and to meeting many security professionals.

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VB2016 video: Last-minute paper: Malicious proxy auto-configs: an easy way to harvest banking credentials

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 30, 2017

In a VB2016 last-minute presentation, Jaromír Horejší and Jan Širmer looked at Retefe, a trojan that has targeted banks in several European countries and used malicious proxy auto-config filesto redirect users' traffic to a server controlled by the attackers. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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WannaCry shows we need to understand why organizations don't patch

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 17, 2017

Perhaps the question we should be asking about WannaCry is not "why do so many organizations allow unpatched machines to exist on their networks?" but "why doesn't patching work reasonably well most of the time?"

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Modern security software is not necessarily powerless against threats like WannaCry

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 15, 2017

The WannaCry ransomware has affected many organisations around the world, making it probably the worst and most damaging of its kind. But modern security is not necessarily powerless against such threats.

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Throwback Thursday: CARO: A personal view

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 11, 2017

This week sees the 11th International CARO Workshop taking place in Krakow, Poland – a prestigious annual meeting of anti-malware and security experts. As a founding member of CARO, Fridrik Skulason was well placed, in August 1994, to shed some light on the organization, to explain in detail CARO's main activities and functions, as well as the reasons behind its strict membership regulations.

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VB2016 paper: Uncovering the secrets of malvertising

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 10, 2017

Malicious advertising, a.k.a. malvertising, has evolved tremendously over the past few years to take a central place in some of today’s largest web-based attacks. It is by far the tool of choice for attackers to reach the masses but also to target them with infinite precision and deliver such payloads as ransomware. Today, we publish a paper presented at VB2016 in Denver by Malwarebytes researchers Jérôme Segura and Chris Boyd, in which they look at the advertising ecosystem, how it is used, and at what techniques are being utilised to spread malware

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Throwback Thursday: Tools of the DDoS Trade

Posted by   Helen Martin on   May 4, 2017

As DDoS attacks become costlier to fix and continue to increase in both number and diversity, we turn back the clock to 2000, when Aleksander Czarnowski took a look at the DDoS tools of the day.

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VB2016 paper: Building a local passiveDNS capability for malware incident response

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   May 4, 2017

At VB2016, Splunk researchers Kathy Wang and Steve Brant presented a Splunk app that can be used to locally collect passive DNS data. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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VB2016 video: Last-minute paper: A malicious OS X cocktail served from a tainted bottle

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 28, 2017

In a VB2016 last-minute presentation, ESET researchers Peter Kalnai and Martin Jirkal looked at the OS X malware threats KeRanger and Keydnap, that both spread through a compromised BitTorrent client. A recording of their presentation is now available to view on our YouTube channel.

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Consumer spyware: a serious threat with a different threat model

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Apr 25, 2017

Consumer spyware is a growing issue and one that can have serious consequences: its use is increasingly common in domestic violence. But do our threat models consider the attacker with physical access to, and inside knowledge of the victim?

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The VB2014 presentation you never saw. Early launch Android malware: your phone is 0wned

Malicious apps may have more privileges than security software.
Malicious apps may have more privileges than security software. There are many people without whom a Virus Bulletin conference wouldn't be possible: the VB team, the crew from Cue… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/10/presentation-you-never-saw-early-launch-android-malware-your-phone-0wned/

Crypto blunder makes TorrentLocker easy to crack

Use of single XOR key leaves ransomware open to known-plaintext attack.
Use of single XOR key leaves ransomware open to known-plaintext attack. It has been said many times before: cryptography is hard. Earlier this year, the authors of the 'Bitcrypt'… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/09/crypto-blunder-makes-torrentlocker-easy-crack/

Researchers release CryptoLocker decryption tool

Tool uses private keys found in database of victims.
Tool uses private keys found in database of victims.Please note: this blog post was written in August 2014 and refers to a particular kind of encryption-ransomware that was active… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/08/researchers-release-cryptolocker-decryption-tool/

Researchers crack ransomware encryption

'Bitcrypt' authors confused their bytes and digits.
'Bitcrypt' authors confused their bytes and digits. Two French researchers have found a serious vulnerability in a new piece of ransomware that has allowed them to crack the keys… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/02/researchers-crack-ransomware-encryption/

Browser-based ransomware uses scare tactics to extort money

Unsophisticated scam shows the high level of commoditization of today's cybercrime.
Unsophisticated scam shows the high level of commoditization of today's cybercrime. A case of browser-based ransomware, that is currently using social engineering tactics in an… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/01/browser-based-ransomware-uses-scare-tactics-extort-money/

NCA issues alert on CryptoLocker ransomware

Malware demands $1,000 ransom to decrypt files.
Malware demands $1,000 ransom to decrypt files. This weekend, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) issued an alert about the 'CryptoLocker' ransomware - following a similar alert… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/nca-issues-alert-cryptolocker-ransomware/

VB2012 last-minute papers announced

Hot topics to be covered at VB conference in Dallas.
Hot topics to be covered at VB conference in Dallas. For the last six years, VB has set aside a section of the VB conference for 'last-minute' papers, the idea being that… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2012/09/last-minute-papers-announced/

Gach do bonn a mbaineann a chur chugainn

Why cybercriminals may have a reason for using Irish language in a ransomware scam.
Why cybercriminals may have a reason for using Irish language in a ransomware scam. According to a story that made the security headlines this weekend, and which seems to orginate… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2012/09/gach-do-bonn-mbaineann-chur-chugainn/

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/

Malicious applications target Orkut

Visitors to infected social network profiles redirected to phishing sites.
Visitors to infected social network profiles redirected to phishing sites. Users of the social networking site Orkut have found themselves targeted by malicious applications that… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/11/malicious-applications-target-orkut/

File encryption blackmail scam returns

Kaspersky warns of new and nasty data-ransom trojan.
Kaspersky warns of new and nasty data-ransom trojan. Malware analysts at Kaspersky Lab have warned of the return of the 'Gpcoder' trojan, a nasty piece of 'ransomware' which… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2008/06/file-encryption-blackmail-scam-returns/

Monster haul of data reaped from job site

Trojan gathers 1.6 million sets of jobseeker records.
Trojan gathers 1.6 million sets of jobseeker records. Researchers at Symantec have reported discovering a server carrying 1.6 million entries from the popular jobseeking website… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/08/monster-haul-data-reaped-job-site/

Ransomware returns

Trojan hides personal data, demands money with menaces.
Trojan hides personal data, demands money with menaces. A new version of a ransomware trojan has been sighted, recalling the warnings of two years ago when similar items first… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2007/07/ransomware-returns/

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