VB Blog

Five tips for submitting to Calls for Papers

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Aug 9, 2017

With the VB2017 Call for Papers out, here are five tips to increase your chances of getting your submission accepted.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Aug 8, 2017

Following the arrest of WannaCry hero Marcus Hutchings, suggestions have been made that he was behind the WannaCry malware itself, and that he inserted the kill switch to make himself a hero. This seems highly unlikely.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Aug 3, 2017

In a two-part blog post series, we look back at ten memorable VB conference presentations from the past ten years.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Aug 3, 2017

The authors of the Trickbot banking trojan seem to have taken note of the use of SMB by WannaCry and (Not)Petya and have added an (experimental) module that uses SMB for lateral movement.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Aug 1, 2017

To give those attending VB2017 Madrid a chance to experience a little bit of the host city, the VB2017 drinks reception will be held at the unique and fascinating Geographic Club.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Aug 1, 2017

To comply with Chinese laws, Apple has removed all iOS VPN apps from its Chinese app store. This means that the company uses iOS's strongest security asset, its tightly controlled App Store, against its own users.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jul 28, 2017

Today we announce the first two Small Talks for the VB2017 programme: ENISA will provide its perspective on the WannaCry outbreak and the lessons learned from it, while David Harley will talk about the past and present of security product testing.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jul 27, 2017

This week the NoMoreRansom project celebrated its first birthday. It has already helped many victims of ransomware with advice and tools and is an excellent example of collaboration between private and public partners in IT security.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jul 26, 2017

Today, we open the call for last-minute papers for VB2017. Submit before 3 September to have your abstract considered for one of the ten slots reserved for 'hot' research.

Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jul 25, 2017

We're not ones to make bold claims about our conference, and we suggest you ask past attendees for their opinion, but here are five reasons why we think you should come to VB2017 in Madrid.

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Throwback Thursday: Malware taking a bit(coin) more than we bargained for

This Throwback Thursday, we republish the VB2012 paper by Microsoft researcher Amir Fouda, one of the earliest papers to look at malware targeting Bitcoin.
In late spring of 2011, a sudden rise in the price of Bitcoin – reaching almost US$30, up from less than $1 barely a month earlier – attracted the attention of malware authors.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/02/throwback-thursday-malware-taking-bitcoin-more-we-bargained/

Meltdown and Spectre attacks mitigated by operating system updates

Just four days into the new year, two serious attacks in modern processors, dubbed Meltdown and Spectre, have been discovered. The attacks can be mitigated by patches to the operating system, but anti-virus software vendors need to make sure their product…
We wish all our readers a very happy and very secure 2018! The latter part will not come without some serious work though. We are not even four days into the new year and we… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2018/01/meltdown-and-spectre-attacks-mitigated-operating-system-updates/

VB2017 preview: Stuck between a ROC and a hard place

We preview the VB2017 paper by Microsoft's Holly Stewart and Joe Blackbird, which uses data about users switching anti-virus provider to decide whether machine-learning models should favour avoiding false positives over false negatives.
Authors of security software in general, and anti-virus software in particular, have always needed to find the right balance between a high detection rate and a low false positive… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2017/08/vb2017-preview-stuck-between-roc-and-hard-place/

A look at the VB2016 sponsors

More than a dozen companies and organizations are lending their support to VB2016 as conference sponsors and supporting organizations.
Today, we are exactly one month away from the start of VB2016, the 26th Virus Bulletin International Conference, which is to take place 5-7 October in Denver, Colorado. We thought… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2016/september/look-vb2016-sponsors/

Paper: Windows 10 patching process may leave enterprises vulnerable to zero-day attacks

Aryeh Goretsky gives advice on how to adapt to Windows 10's patching strategy.
Aryeh Goretsky gives advice on how to adapt to Windows 10's patching strategy. Patching is hard, especially when the code base is old and the bugs are buried deeply. This was… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/03/paper-windows-10-patching-process-may-leave-enterprises-vulnerable-zero-day-attacks/

Microsoft no longer publishes advance notifications for its Patch Tuesdays

Company unhappy with Google going full disclosure on privilege escalation vulnerability.
Company unhappy with Google going full disclosure on privilege escalation vulnerability. Tomorrow is the second Tuesday of the month and, as most people reading this blog will… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/01/microsoft-no-longer-publishes-advance-notifications-its-patch-tuesdays/

Out-of-band patch released for all Windows versions

Kerberos bug means one set of credentials suffices to rule them all.
Kerberos bug means one set of credentials suffices to rule them all. If you are a Windows systems administrator, the content of this blog post will (hopefully) not come as a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/11/out-band-patch-released-all-windows-versions/

VB2014 paper: DMARC - how to use it to improve your email reputation

Terry Zink presents case study in which he describes setting a DMARC policy for Microsoft.
Terry Zink presents case study in which he describes setting a DMARC policy for Microsoft.Over the next few months, we will be sharing VB2014 conference papers as well as video… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/11/paper-dmarc-how-use-it-improve-your-email-reputation/

Windows Error Reporting used to discover new attacks

No excuse for sending error reports in cleartext.
No excuse for sending error reports in cleartext. All happy programs are the same. But each unhappy program crashes in its own way. In a report published yesterday, security firm… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/02/windows-error-reporting-used-discover-new-attacks/

VirusTotal support integrated into new version of Process Explorer

Sysadmins can check hashes of processes against file-checking service database.
Sysadmins can check hashes of processes against file-checking service database.Microsoft and Google are known for their fierce competition, but when it comes to security, the tech… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2014/01/virustotal-support-integrated-new-version-process-explorer/

Privilege escalation vulnerability targets Windows XP and Server 2003

Vulnerability being used in the wild in combination with exploit of patched Adobe Reader vulnerability.
Vulnerability being used in the wild in combination with exploit of patched Adobe Reader vulnerability. Researchers at FireEye have discovered a new privilege escalation… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/privilege-escalation-vulnerability-targets-windows-xp-and-server-2003/

Good and bad news for victims of targeted attacks against Microsoft products

Bug bounty program extended; TIFF zero-day used in the wild.
Bug bounty program extended; TIFF zero-day used in the wild. This week, Microsoft has good news and bad news for those targeted by zero-day exploits in its products. The bad… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/11/good-and-bad-news-victims-targeted-attacks-against-microsoft-products/

Should software vendors extend support for their products on Windows XP?

Is Google making the Internet more or less secure by extending support for Chrome on XP?
Is Google making the Internet more or less secure by extending support for Chrome on XP? A software vendor's decision to release updates to its product is generally seen as a good… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2013/10/should-software-vendors-extend-support-their-products-windows-xp/

Microsoft releases advisory offering workarounds for IE vulnerability

German government advises users to use alternative browser.
German government advises users to use alternative browser.Microsoft has released a security advisory to address the zero-day vulnerability in its Internet Explorer browser that we… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2012/09/microsoft-releases-advisory-offering-workarounds-ie-vulnerability/

Microsoft to publish security bulletins in CVRF format

Standard will streamline process of reviewing patches.
Standard will streamline process of reviewing patches. Software giant Microsoft has announced that it has started to publish its monthly security bulletins in the CVRF format.… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2012/05/microsoft-publish-security-bulletins-cvrf-format/

Hefty Patch Tuesday bulletin rounds off bumper year

No sign of an end to vulnerability glut.
No sign of an end to vulnerability glut.Microsoft released its monthly Patch Tuesday security bulletin yesterday, with details of a hefty 17 alerts covering 40 separate… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/12/hefty-patch-tuesday-bulletin-rounds-bumper-year/

Security fixes from Apple and Microsoft

100 security fixes in latest OS X update; three MS security updates in this month's patch release.
100 security fixes in latest OS X update; three MS security updates in this month's patch release. The latest release of Mac operating system OS X (Mac OS X v10.6.5) contains over… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/11/security-fixes-apple-and-microsoft/

Microsoft's machines hijacked by spammers

Servers also used for DoS attack on security journalist's site.
Servers also used for DoS attack on security journalist's site. More than a thousand websites pushing spamvertised pharmaceuticals have been found to be using name servers on… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/10/microsoft-s-machines-hijacked-spammers/

Giant patch release from Microsoft, Oracle

Record Patch Tuesday combines with swathe of extra fixes for corporates.
Record Patch Tuesday combines with swathe of extra fixes for corporates. It's a busy week for corporate admins as Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday security bulletin, containing a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/10/giant-patch-release-microsoft-oracle/

Microsoft releases new fix for DLL vulnerability

Earlier workaround believed to be too complex for most users.
Earlier workaround believed to be too complex for most users. A week after Microsoft released a fix for a DLL vulnerability that affected a large number of programs running on its… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2010/09/microsoft-releases-new-fix-dll-vulnerability/

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