December issue of VB published

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Dec 1, 2013

The December issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to download.

The December 2013 issue of Virus Bulletin is now available for subscribers to browse online or download in PDF or PRC (Kindle) format.

Some of the things this month's issue has in store are:

• Surveillance and servility: is the AV industry a puppet of statecraft?: Samir Mody points out that, far from being something new to the digital era, surveillance has been an instrument of statecraft for millennia.

• In memoriam: Péter Ször 1970-2013: The untimely death of security researcher Péter Ször sent shockwaves across anti-malware community last month. Some of those who knew him best pay tribute to a brilliant mind and a true gentleman.

• Onkod: a downloader and its 'downloadee': Downloaders are usually small and simple files whose goal is purely to download the 'main course' of a malware infection. The downloaded file (or 'downloadee') invariably has more features and functionalities than the downloader. Raul Alvarez looks at the W32/Onkod downloader and its downloaded file.

• Fake KakaoTalk security plug-in: The Android/FakeKakao trojan monitors incoming and outgoing SMS messages, sends SMS spam and gathers sensitive information as well as incorporating anti-debugging and anti-emulator tricks and disabling some security software. Zhe Li and Dong Xie take a closer look.

• Hands in the cookie JAR: Viruses for Java are relatively rare, and parasitic viruses for Java are even rarer. The Java/Handjar virus infects Java applications by placing its virus code inside a JAR file and including a reference to the virus class file. Peter Ferrie has the details.

• The past and future of international cooperation: Wout de Natris urges parliamentarians to facilitate cooperation across borders and asks: why is it necessary, in 2013, to give up a little bit of sovereignty and territoriality?

• Greetz from academe: Santa's got a gun: In the latest of his 'Greetz from Academe' series, highlighting some of the work going on in academic circles, John Aycock looks at a tool designed to detect JavaScript containing malicious evasions.

• EICAR 2013: Data protection < > data security?: Eddy Willems presents a round up of the 22nd EICAR Conference, held in Hannover last month.

Note: The December 2013 VB100 comparative review will be published as standalone article later in the month. As with all new VB100 and VBSpam reviews, the report will be available for non-subscribers to purchase as a standalone item (Virus Bulletin subscribers will be notified by email when the comparative is available to download). Non-subscribers can purchase VB100 reports here and VBSpam reports here.

Subscribers click here to access the issue.

If you are not already a subscriber why not take the chance to subscribe now.

Posted on 03 December 2013 by Virus Bulletin

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