VB Blog

Necurs pump-and-dump spam campaign pushes obscure cryptocurrency

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 16, 2018

A Necurs pump-and-dump spam campaign pushing the lesser known Swisscoin botnet is mostly background noise for the Internet.

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Alleged author of creepy FruitFly macOS malware arrested

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 11, 2018

A 28-year old man from Ohio has been arrested on suspicion of having created the mysterious FruitFly malware that targeted macOS and used it to spy on its victims.

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The threat and security product landscape in 2017

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 10, 2018

At the start of the new year, Virus Bulletin looks back at the threats seen in the 2017 and at the security products that are available to help mitigate them.

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Spamhaus report shows many botnet controllers look a lot like legitimate servers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 9, 2018

Spamhaus's annual report on botnet activity shows that botherders tend to use popular, legitimate hosting providers, domain registrars and top-level domains when setting up command-and-control servers.

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Tips on researching tech support scams

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 5, 2018

As tech support scammers continue to target the computer illiterate through cold calling, VB's Martijn Grooten uses his own experience to share some advice on how to investigate such scams.

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Meltdown and Spectre attacks mitigated by operating system updates

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Jan 4, 2018

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 products are compatible with the patches.

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Conference review: AVAR 2017

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 22, 2017

Martijn Grooten reports on the 20th AVAR conference, which took place earlier in December in Beijing, China.

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Conference review: Botconf 2017

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Dec 22, 2017

Virus Bulletin researchers report back from a very interesting fifth edition of Botconf, the botnet fighting conference.

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VB2017 videos on attacks against Ukraine

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 21, 2017

(In)security is a global issue that affects countries around the world, but in recent years none has been so badly hit as Ukraine. Today, we publish the videos of two VB2017 talks about attacks that hit Ukraine particularly badly: a talk by Alexander Adamov (NioGuard) on (Not)Petya and related attacks, and another by Robert Lipovsky and Anton Cherepanov (ESET) on Industroyer.

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Facebook helps you determine whether emails really came from its servers

Posted by   Martijn Grooten on   Dec 21, 2017

On its website, Facebook now shows which emails it has sent you recently, thus helping you to determine which emails are real, and which should be discarded as phishing.

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Throwback Thursday: IT Security Breaches: The 1994 NCC Survey

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to November 1994, when VB asked: what is the nature of the real virus problem, and how much does it cost?
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to November 1994, when VB asked: what is the nature of the real virus problem, and how much does it cost? Year after year, we see… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/08/throwback-thursday-it-security-breaches-1994-ncc-survey/

VB2015 preview: the Internet of Things

Experts to cover various aspects of IoT (in)security in a range of talks.
Experts to cover various aspects of IoT (in)security in a range of talks. As a reader of this blog, and hopefully as someone who will attend VB2015, you don't need to be told that… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/08/preview-internet-things/

File-stealing vulnerability found in Firefox PDF reader

Both Windows and Linux users actively being targeted.
Both Windows and Linux users actively being targeted. If, like me, you are suffering from vulnerability fatigue after so many flaws and weaknesses having been disclosed in Las… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/08/file-stealing-vulnerability-found-firefox-pdf-reader/

Paper: Hype heuristics, signatures and the death of AV (again)

David Harley responds to anti-malware's many criticasters.
David Harley responds to anti-malware's many criticasters. Anti-virus is dead. After all, in the current threat landscape, who would use a system that relies on signatures of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/08/paper-hype-heuristics-signatures-and-death-av-again/

Throwback Thursday: Palm Breach

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to July 2000, when concerns were growing about malicious threats to the Palm Personal Digital Assistant.
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to July 2000, when concerns were growing about malicious threats to the Palm Personal Digital Assistant. In the 1980s, no one left… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/08/throwback-thursday-palm-breach/

August

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/08/

Compromised site serves Nuclear exploit kit together with fake BSOD

Support scammers not lying about a malware infection for a change.
Support scammers not lying about a malware infection for a change. During our work on the development of the VBWeb tests, which will be started soon, we came across an interesting… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/compromised-site-serves-nuclear-exploit-kit-together-fake-bsod/

Throwback Thursday: Riotous Assembly

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to January 1994, shortly after Cyber Riot had emerged as the first virus capable of infecting the Windows kernel.
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to January 1994, shortly after Cyber Riot had emerged as the first virus capable of infecting the Windows kernel. Today, malware… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/throwback-thursday-riotous-assembly/

Stagefright vulnerability leaves 950 million Android devices vulnerable to remote code execution

The operating system has been patched, but it is unclear whether users will receive those patches.
The operating system has been patched, but it is unclear whether users will receive those patches. Researchers at mobile security firm Zimperium have discovered a remote code… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/stagefright-vulnerability-leaves-950-million-android-devices-vulnerable-remote-code-execution/

Throwback Thursday: Sizewell B: Fact or Fiction?

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1993, when VB asked the key question: could a virus compromise safety at one of Britain's nuclear power plants?
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1993, when VB asked the key question: could a virus compromise safety at one of Britain's nuclear power plants? 2010 saw the… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/throwback-thursday-sizewell-b-fact-or-fiction/

Call for last-minute papers for VB2015 announced

Ten speaking slots waiting to be filled with presentations on 'hot' security topics.
Ten speaking slots waiting to be filled with presentations on 'hot' security topics. There's never a dull moment in the world of IT security. Whether you think the breach of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/call-last-minute-papers-announced/

Spam levels fall below 50% for the first time in 12 years

Decline not necessarily good news for spam filters.
Decline not necessarily good news for spam filters. For the first time in 12 years, less than half of email traffic is spam, Symantec reports in the latest issue of its monthly… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/spam-levels-fall-below-50-first-time-12-years/

'NOMORE' attack makes RC4 a little weaker again

No good reason to continue using the stream cipher, yet attacks remain impractical.
No good reason to continue using the stream cipher, yet attacks remain impractical. Researchers from the KU Leuven have presented a new attack against the RC4 stream cipher called… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/nomore-attack-makes-rc4-little-weaker-again/

Throwback Thursday: What You Pay For...

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1996, when VB looked at what was available to protect your computer free of charge.
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1996, when VB looked at what was available to protect your computer free of charge. Today, the 'freemium' business model is a… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/throwback-thursday-what-you-pay/

Paper: Dridex in the Wild

Meng Su explains how Dridex works and how it communicates with its C&C server.
Meng Su explains how Dridex works and how it communicates with its C&C server. A descendant of Cridex, Dridex was first written about a little less than a year ago, by S21sec and… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/paper-dridex-wild/

Those doing bad things deserve privacy too

Hacking Team leakers should have taken a leaf out of Snowden's book.
Hacking Team leakers should have taken a leaf out of Snowden's book. I can understand, at least in principle, that targeted malware could be used by law enforcement agencies for… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/those-doing-bad-things-deserve-privacy-too/

Throwback Thursday: Cabirn Fever

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 2004, when the first worm to spread from mobile phone to mobile phone appeared.
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 2004, when the first worm to spread from mobile phone to mobile phone appeared. Since it first appeared almost exactly 11 years… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/throwback-thursday-cabirn-fever/

Little sympathy for breached Hacking Team

Lists of customers, source code and zero-day vulnerabilities made public.
Lists of customers, source code and zero-day vulnerabilities made public. The biggest security story of this week, and probably one of the biggest of the year, is the hack of… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/little-sympathy-breached-hacking-team/

Throwback Thursday: The Updating Game

This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1997, when automatic updates of AV software were not the norm.
This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to 1997, when automatic updates of AV software were not the norm. We all know that the malware scene has changed almost beyond… https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/throwback-thursday-updating-game/

July

Anti-virus and security related news provided by independent anti-virus advisors, Virus Bulletin
https://www.virusbulletin.com/blog/2015/07/

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