Small Talks return to the Virus Bulletin Conference

VB2015 was the 25th Virus Bulletin conference and, to celebrate the occasion, we added a third stream to the programme. Dubbed “Small Talks”, these talks were longer than those on the regular programme and took place in a smaller room, which allowed for a more informal discussion. Various subjects were covered, ranging from targeted attacks on civil society to the security changes in the then new

Windows 10

operating system.

The Small Talks proved to be very popular and as a result, we decided to keep them on the VB2016 programme in the same format as last year.

Sebastian Porst presented at VB2015 and will return to VB2016 with a Small Talk on Android security.

• 
  As the most widely used mobile operating system,
  
  
  Android
  
  
  is a popular target for malware authors. Sebastian Porst and Jason Woloz from
  
  
  Google
  
  
  ‘s Android Security Team will
  
  
  lead a discussion
  
  
  , aiming to create a dialogue with the security community with the goal of establishing opportunities for collaborative problem solving.

• 
  The IEEE’s
  
  
  Anti-Malware Support Service
  
  
  is one of many collaborative efforts that have sprung from Virus Bulletin talks (in this case, talks at
  
  
  VB2011
  
  
  and
  
  
  VB2012
  
  
  ).
  
  
  Symantec
  
  
  researcher Mark Kennedy, one of the driving forces behind the AMSS, will
  
  
  provide an update
  
  
  on the Taggant system and the Clean-file Metadata eXchange, and will also discuss with the audience where the IEEE might concentrate its efforts in the future.

• 
  Though it is the country with the largest online population, language and cultural barriers make the Chinese Internet a
  
  
  terra incognita
  
  
  for many security experts. Researchers from
  
  
  Qihoo 360
  
  
  ‘s Helios team will help overcome this problem by
  
  
  discussing their findings
  
  
  on the ‘Hook007 Group’, possibly the country’s largest and oldest cybercrime group.

• 
  Earlier this week, we
  
  
  wrote about
  
  
  the vast amount of research dedicated to exploit kits. Many of the researchers who carry out this work will be in Denver, and they should be keen to join a session led by
  
  
  Fidelis
  
  
  researcher John Bambernek, where the latest research into exploit kits, including collaborative efforts to tackle them,
  
  
  will be discussed
  
  
  .

• 
  
  There are few security professionals who do not occasionally use the Tor network. But most of them will also have seen how the network is commonly used by cybercriminals to hide their infrastructure. We invited David Goulet, a core member of Tor’s development team, to explain to delegates
  
  
  how the network and its ‘hidden services’ work
  
  
  , after which he will engage in a discussion with the malware research community to find out how the research community and the Tor Project can help each other.

• 
  Finally, the Clean Software Alliance returns to present a Small Talk. The CSA aims to codify and operationalize industry best practices among the software distribution ecosystem.
  
  
  This Small Talk
  
  
  will be aimed
  
  
  primarily
  
  
  at members of the security community and will focus on the enforcement perspective.
  

We will also use the Small Talks room to give the authors of the three reserve papers an opportunity to present their research (unless we need them to step in to fill a space on the main programme!).

The

call for last-minute papers


–

presentations that address up-to-the-minute and emerging topics and research – remains open until 4 September, soon after which we will be announcing the final additions to the conference programme.

In the meantime, don’t forget to

register

for VB2016!