Tag: avast
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VB2019 paper: Spoofing in the reeds with Rietspoof
The Rietspoof malware was first discovered by Avast researchers in August 2018 and publicly disclosed in a blog post in February 2019. The multi-stage malware utilises different file types throughout its infection chain including in one stage a CAB file. Full details of the malware, including later discoveries, were revealed in a VB2019 paper by…
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VB2017 video: Spora: the saga continues a.k.a. how to ruin your research in a week
First discovered at the beginning of the year, the Spora ransomware has become one of of the most prominent ransomware families of 2017, especially in Russia, a region it appears to target. Spora exhibited worm-like behaviour months before the appearance of WannaCry, using .LNK files, a technique previously used by other malware. (Spora’s implementation is…
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VB2017 video: Spora: the saga continues a.k.a. how to ruin your research in a week
First discovered at the beginning of the year, the Spora ransomware has become one of of the most prominent ransomware families of 2017, especially in Russia, a region it appears to target. Spora exhibited worm-like behaviour months before the appearance of WannaCry, using .LNK files, a technique previously used by other malware. (Spora’s implementation is…
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Malicious CCleaner update points to a major weakness in our infrastructure
For the security community, 2017 might well be called the year of the update: two of the biggest security stories – the WannaCry outbreak and the Equifax breach – involved organizations being hit badly as a consequence of not having installed (security) updates, while another major story, that of (Not)Petya , concerned a threat that…
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Malicious CCleaner update points to a major weakness in our infrastructure
For the security community, 2017 might well be called the year of the update: two of the biggest security stories – the WannaCry outbreak and the Equifax breach – involved organizations being hit badly as a consequence of not having installed (security) updates, while another major story, that of (Not)Petya , concerned a threat that…
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Avast acquires AVG for $1.3bn
There was interesting news in the anti-virus world yesterday, as Avast announced the acquisition of its competitor AVG . Both companies were founded in the Czech Republic and both are best known for their free home anti-virus products. Indeed, it is not uncommon for people to confuse the two companies. Writing on his company’s blog,…
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Avast acquires AVG for $1.3bn
There was interesting news in the anti-virus world yesterday, as Avast announced the acquisition of its competitor AVG . Both companies were founded in the Czech Republic and both are best known for their free home anti-virus products. Indeed, it is not uncommon for people to confuse the two companies. Writing on his company’s blog,…
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Avast launches bug bounty programme
Security firm offers reward for info on bugs. Security firm Avast Software , producer of the popular avast! free anti-virus solution, has announced a bug bounty programme to encourage researchers to responsibly report the vulnerabilities they identify in the company’s security products. Avast is interested in hearing about vulnerabilities that may lead to remote code…
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774,000 Avast! pirates on 14-user licence
Wildly popular free solution not good enough for some. Leading provider of free anti-malware products Avast Software has spotted that a single 14-user licence key, issued last summer to a customer in Arizona, is being used by over three quarters of a million pirates, who got hold of the key code after it made its…
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Sophos joins free home AV crowd with Mac release
Business-focused firm takes first step into home-user arena. Sophos has announced the release of a home-user edition of its Mac anti-malware solution, which is being given away free to anyone who wants to use it. Unprotected users of Apple ‘s Macintosh range of computers (reckoned by many to constitute the majority of users at the…