VB Migration

Tag: virus bulletin

  • Throwback Thursday: Memetic Mass Mailers: Time to Classify Hoaxes as Malware?

    This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to July 2002, when virus hoaxes were wreaking havoc in homes and organizations worldwide. Virus hoaxes — false reports or warnings about non-existent viruses whose traditional payload was time wasting and increasing user anxiety about the virus threat, but which could also extend to getting the user…

  • Throwback Thursday: The real virus problem

    This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to February 2004 when, in order to get a gauge of the “real” virus problem, Jim Bates presented the findings of a survey of UK computer programmers. “A ragbag of pseudo-scientific projections, surveys, reports, forecasts and speculations” — the true extent of the malware problem has always…

  • Throwback Thursday: Misguided or malevolent? New trends in virus writing

    This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to February 2004 when Stuart Taylor wondered whether there was truly a criminal element entering virus writing. These days, no one would argue that there wasn’t a criminal element in virus writing — cybercrime is big business and has evolved into a truly organized crime ecosystem. On…

  • Throwback Thursday: The First International Virus Bulletin Conference

    This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to October 1991 to take a look back at the first ever VB Conference: VB’91 in Jersey. With VB2015 , the 25th Virus Bulletin International Conference, just days away, we decided to take a look back at the first ever VB Conference: VB’91 in Jersey. Next week,…

  • Throwback Thursday: Virus Writer and Distributors ‘Attributable Viruses’

    This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to July 1990, when VB looked at virus origins and some of the rare cases of attributable viruses. This week saw the confession of a former teenage virus writer: the author of the Leprosy and Leprosy.B viruses, which afflicted computer users in the early 90s, confessed all…

  • Paper: Custom packer defeats multiple automation systems

    Combination of anti-automation, anti-VM and anti-reverse engineering to make researchers’ lives harder. Ever since the number of new malware samples became so large we could no longer list them in Virus Bulletin magazine, security researchers have been looking at ways to automate analysis. And ever since then, malware authors have been trying to find ways…

  • Throwback Thursday: Computer Viruses: Electronically Transmitted Disease?

    This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to March 2003, when VB reported on a piece of research investigating the psychological toll inflicted by computer viruses. One could argue that there is more to be feared from the malware infections of today than those of yesteryear — after all, today’s malware may lead to…

  • Throwback Thursday: Safe Hex in the 21st Century

    This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to July 2000, when we were already being warned that virus scanners were no longer enough. How many times have we heard commentators claim that anti-virus is dead? After all, in the current threat landscape, who would use a system that relies solely on signatures of previously…

  • Throwback Thursday: The Virus Analyst Headache

    This Throwback Thursday, we turn the clock back to April 1999, when the average virus analyst had to manually process around ten or more viruses per day, and the growing complexity and volume of viruses was proving a headache. By the early years of the 21st century, the volume of malware was such that no…

  • 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? Year after year, we see reports and surveys revealing the latest cybercrime figures and statistics — in 2015, respondents to PwC ‘s Global State of Information…