Fighting malware and spam

News

US and UK spam legislation in place

Anti-spam legislation in place.

29 December 2003

Number crunching

Calculating the average cost of a virus attack - estimates or guesstimates?

19 December 2003

SAS - the SysAsmin Service?

Computer security experts prepare to become special constables.

18 December 2003

Seasonal spamming

Increase in spam in lead up to holiday season.

01 December 2003

Seasonal spamming

Increase in spam in lead up to holiday season.

01 December 2003

SpamCop snapped up

IronPort Systems to purchase SpamCop

01 December 2003

SpamCop snapped up

IronPort Systems to purchase SpamCop

1 December 2003

VB2004 call for papers

Virus Bulletin calls for all speakers papers.

05 January 2004

The menace within

Is BitDefender really staffed by Romanian vampire hackers...?

04 November 2003

Unanimous vote for CAN-SPAM Act

US Senate approves federal anti-spam legislation.

01 November 2003

New VB Spam Supplement

VB plans to present a selection of news and articles on spam and anti-spam techniques - some technical, some ethical, some relating to real-world experiences of dealing with spam.

01 November 2003

Unanimous vote for CAN-SPAM Act

US Senate approves federal anti-spam legislation.

1 November 2003

Totally Toronto: VB2003

Helen Martin recounts the Virus Bulletin conference.

30 October 2003

Linux vs. Windows viruses: a rebuttal

Pete Sergeant responds to an article by a SecurityFocus columnist, which hints that Linux users really don't need to worry about viruses.

06 October 2003

Four arrests and a congressional hearing

US Congress starts to take computer security seriously, four alleged malware writers arrested...

30 September 2003

Youth faces arrest for Blaster variant

Teenager suspected of creating Blaster variant faces arrest.

29 August 2003

Watching and waiting for Sobig

On 22 August 2003 anti-virus experts and sysadmins worldwide waited to discover what events, if any, would unfold when Sobig.F began a synchronized attack.

26 August 2003

Symantec acquires Hilgraeve patent

Symantec pays $62.5m for a software patent, considers litigation against infringing competitors.

19 August 2003

No more Mr Nice Guy: UK gets tough on hi-tech criminals

Welsh virus-writer shown justice, not mercy

01 August 2003

The big wait

Will Microsoft's second attempt at entering the anti-virus field result in the 'vast shake-up' of the AV industry that was expected last time?

01 July 2003

Canadian retreat

Ontario plays host to VB2003 and NTBugtraq Retreat.

01 July 2003

School without thought - your thoughts

Your thoughts on the University of Calgary's proposals to teach virus writing in its course on computer viruses and malware.

30 June 2003

Microsoft buys into AV

Microsoft announces acquisition of anti-virus technology.

10 June 2003

School without thought

University course teaches students to write malware.

01 June 2003

Military intelligence

US Army gets serious about anti-virus.

10 April 2003

Same old, same old

Virus writers plead stupidity...

02 April 2003

Security in the classroom

Microsoft supporting secure code initiative at University of Leeds

01 April 2003

Lighter sentences for virus writers?

A US report claims that sentences for computer-related crimes are too harsh.

03 March 2003

Anti-virus for Lindows

Lindows teams up with Central Command to sell Linux anti-virus - a step in the right direction, but perhaps not far enough...

20 February 2003

Symantec press release backfires

Watch out for your marketing department...

17 February 2003

VB2003 programme announced

Details of the VB2003 conference programme announced ...

05 February 2003

Calling all speakers

Submit your papers for VB2003 now!

04 February 2003

Calling all speakers

Submit your papers for VB2003 now!

04 February 2003

Standing up for free speech

NAI lands itself a hefty fine...

03 February 2003

Two years for three viruses

Author of Gokar, Redesi and Admirer jailed for two years.

01 February 2003

Virus writers get a helping hand

Two organizations send viruses to mailing list subscribers...

23 Jan 2003

W32/B(e)agle

VB predicts: 'Beagle's bark worse than its bite', 'Beware of Bagles in the morning', 'The Beagle has landed', ad nauseam.

19 January 2003

News summary...

Trend estimates $5b virus damage in 2003, monoculture blues, Symantec 'reels from week of mishaps', more MiMail, and more...

16 January 2003

Microsoft rights management

What digital and information rights management may mean for the industry.

14 January 2003

RIAA worm

RIAA allegedly buying worms to stop P2P piracy

14 Jan 2003

Anti anti anti

NAI buys DeerSoft Inc., manufacturer of SpamAssassin Pro - confusion assured ...

07 Jan 2003

Lessons to be Learned

Proving that mistakes can happen to us all, it seems that W32/Winevar.A was not the only virus 'story' to have arisen from the AVAR 2002 conference in Korea.

03 January 2003

A Happy New Year

In a cheery end-of-year message, mi2g has made ten security predictions for 2003.

02 January 2003

Stocks, viruses and a disgruntled employee

A systems administrator has been charged with attempting to manipulate a company's stock price by introducing a virus into its computer system.

18 December 2002

Stocking Fillers

It's that time of year again when we're frantically scouring the shopping malls for something unique and meaningful to give to our loved ones. Coincidentally, it's also that time of year when VB turns out its stock cupboards and puts some truly fabulous merchandise up for grabs.

04 December 2002

Addendum: Windows 2000 Advanced Server Comparative Review

After re-testing, Trend's ServerProtect product gains a VB 100% award.

01 December 2002

Some thoughts on ViraLock

We examine ViraLock, a product which promises 'Zero Escape For Email Viruses', provided, it seems, the virus plays by their rules.

25 November 2002

Who's There?

New security portal unveiled by publishers of Information Security Bulletin magazine.

23 November 2002

Paying the Price

McAfee Security issues press release estimating the potential costs to businesses of 'the next big virus attack'

22 November 2002

Writer of virus trio in court

A British man has appeared in court charged with the creation and distribution of a trio of mass-mailing viruses: Gokar, Redesi and Admirer.

13 November 2002

'Kournikova' writer loses appeal

Reports are that Jan de Wit, author of the 'Kournikova' virus (VBSWG variant) has lost his appeal against 150 hours of community service.

29 October 2002

With friends like these...

A nuisance email which is neither viral nor a hoax is proving to be equally bothersome.

24 October 2002

Addendum: June 2002 Windows XP Comparative Review

F-Prot users relying on the on-access protection against W32/Nimda.A are safe

24 October 2002

Moth-eaten software...

A warning issued by Israeli security firm GreyMagic Software last month revealed a total of nine vulnerabilities in IE 5.5 and 6.0, all concerning object caching.

22 October 2002

Service or bust

So confident is Trend Micro of its virus detection abilities that it is offering a financial penalty-backed detection guarantee.

08 October 2002

Viruses - Some Good

Just occasionally, a virus infection can have some positive effects...

10 September 2002

Bring on the DEET

The latest award for the most tenuous product-pushing story goes to BitDefender, whose marketeers claim a 'mosquito-borne disease could easily become a computer infection.'

03 September 2002

Virtually There

The Infosecurity show and exhibition has gone virtual with the launch of the first Infosecurity World Online exhibition. But where are the sweets?

01 September 2002

The youth of today...

Five Israeli teenagers have been charged in connection with writing and disseminating W32/Goner.

06 August 2002

Bugs galore

Symantec's acquisition of SecurityFocus last month has unsettled a number of contributors to the BugTraq vulnerability list. So much so that they created a new one.

05 August 2002

Third time unlucky

NAI's third attempt to re-acquire McAfee.com was scuppered yesterday when 96% of McAfee.com shareholders rejected NAI's latest exchange offer for McAfee.com shares.

01 August 2002

Retail Therapy

Symantec has been on a blow-out shopping spree...

01 August 2002

Erratum: Windows XP comparative review: McAfee VirusScan

After re-testing, McAfee's VirusScan product gains a VB 100% award.

29 August 2002

Quarter byte squaw?

Worryingly, many sysadmins seemed unaware both of the Apache 'chunked encoding' bug and of their systems' vulnerability...

01 July 2002

Crying wolf revisited

While one AV vendor comes in for a roasting, the others enjoy the rare taste of the moral high ground.

01 July 2002

Windows XP Professional comparative review

After re-testing, Panda Antivirus Platinum's on-access scanner product gains a VB 100% award.

28 June 2002

Shakira cynicism

As reports begin to appear of the latest VBSWG variant climbing prevalence tables, VB has received a particularly relevant comment from sys-admin Scott Francis.

07 June 2002

As complex as Euler's formula

IT news website Slashdot's report of Simile's cross-platform capabilities was met with the usual host of ill-informed, biased and naïve comments from users of the site.

05 June 2002

Outraged of Slovakia

Is there really any need to include virus samples in product tests? CNET seems to think it's not worth the bother.

23 May 2002

Closed source sauce

Microsoft has claimed that open source software threatens security - unlike proprietary software such as its own SQL Server, currently playing vector to a new worm.

22 May 2002

Poll

VB100 certification