Fighting malware and spam

VB2006 call for papers

Virus Bulletin is seeking submissions from those wishing to present at VB2006, the Sixteenth Virus Bulletin International Conference, which will take place 11-13 October 2006 at the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, Montréal, Québec, Canada.

The conference will include three days of 40-minute presentations running in two (2) concurrent streams: Technical and Corporate. Submissions are invited on all subjects relevant to anti-malware and anti-spam. In particular, VB welcomes the submission of papers that will provide delegates with ideas, advice and/or practical techniques, and encourages presentations that include practical demonstrations of techniques or new technologies.

Suggested topics

The following is a list of suggested topics elicited from attendees at VB2005. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and papers on these and any other anti-malware and spam-related subjects will be considered.

Technical AV

• Malware collection tools/honeypots
• Malware classification tools
• Spyware/adware - definition, techniques and detection
• Malware with respect to cryptography
• Threats and protection for mobile devices
• Emulation, engine level sandboxing, unpacking techniques
• Rootkits
• x64 malware
• Malware on non-Windows platforms
• Emulators/heuristics/PE unpacking on non-Windows platforms
• Hardware anti-malware solutions
• Tools of the trade (deobfuscation, IR, etc.)
• Behavioural analysis and detection
• Proof of concept demonstrations
• Phishing
• Latest malware outbreaks
• PDF threats
• Wireless security
• CERT/vendor cooperation
• Hardware supported virtualisation

Corporate AV

• Case studies
• Best practices
• Policy enforcement
• Vulnerability assessment
• Risk management
• Phishing & fraud in the corporate environment
• Spyware/adware in the corporate environment
• Online crime prevention
• Tracing malware authors/perpetrators
• Anti-virus & anti-spyware performance testing
• Educating users
• Management of anti-virus infrastructures
• Proactive detection mechanisms
• IDS/IPS
• False positive prevention
• Government security policies
• IT outsourcing and associated risks
• Mobile threats
• Anti-malware managed services

Spam

• Experience with spam filters in the corporate environment
• Best practices
• Spam and spammers from a legal point of view
• Spam filter performance testing
• Latest spam filter avoidance techniques (spammers' tricks)
• Latest anti-spam techniques
• Filtering phishing mails

VB also invites you to send suggestions for any particular presenters you would like to hear from at VB2006. Please send speaker nominations, along with details of why you would like to hear from them (for example, are they an excellent presenter; is their field of research of particular interest; do they have very strong or controversial opinions?) to editor@virusbtn.com.

Following the close of the call for papers all submissions will be anonymised before being reviewed by a selection committee; abstracts will be assessed for relevance, technical accuracy, novelty of the idea and so on. Authors will be notified of the status of their paper by email.

Those considering submitting papers should bear in mind that speakers must be available to present their session at the conference in Montréal (on 11, 12 or 13 October 2006), and that the alloted time for each presentation will be 40 minutes (which includes time for questions).

As part of your speaking obligation, you are required to provide a paper that will be included in the conference proceedings. Authors are advised in advance that, should their paper be selected for the conference programme, the deadline for submission of the completed paper will be Monday 5 June 2006 and that full papers should not exceed 6,000 words.

How to submit a paper

Abstracts of approximately 200 words must be sent as plain text files to editor@virusbtn.com no later than Thursday 9 March 2006. Submissions received after this date will not be considered. Please include full contact details with each submission.

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