Virus Bulletin - February 2006

Editor: Helen Martin

Technical Consultant: Matt Ham

Technical Editor: Morton Swimmer

Consulting Editor: Ian Whalley, Nick FitzGerald, Richard Ford, Edward Wilding

2006-02-01

Abstract

What threats may come (comment); Not worthy (virus analysis); Inside the Windows Meta File format (technical feature); Learning from Sony: an external perspective (opinion); Signature updates vs BCP (feature); Windows NT 4 Workstation (comparative review)


Comment

What threats may come

'A serious threat in 2006 will be multi-stage, targeted phishing attacks.' Tomer Honen, Aladdin Knowledge Systems.

Tomer Honen - Aladdin Knowledge Systems, Israel


News

Neighbourhood Watch to fight 'badware'

New initiative aimed at fighting spyware, malware and deceptive adware.



VB2006 call for papers

The deadline for submitting paper proposals for VB2006 is fast approaching.



Addendeum: The false positive disaster

Addendum to article in VB November 2005.



Malware prevalence report

December 2005

The Virus Bulletin prevalence table is compiled monthly from virus reports received by Virus Bulletin; both directly, and from other companies who pass on their statistics.



Virus analysis

Not worthy

Peter Ferrie has the details of MSIL/Idonus.

Peter Ferrie - Symantec Security Response, USA


Technical feature

Inside the Windows Meta File format

The Windows Meta File (WMF) format has received a lot of attention over recent weeks. Peter Ferrie looks at why.

Peter Ferrie - Symantec Security Response, USA


Opinion

Learning from Sony: an external perspective

Dan Kaminsky takes a long hard look at the reaction (or lack thereof) of the AV industry to the Sony rootkit incident and assesses the consequences.

Dan Kaminsky - DoxPara Research, USA


Feature

Signature updates vs BCP

Would you ever expect a well established anti-virus company to fail to provide you with signature updates? Would your company's security policy be ready to deal with such a situation?

Aleksander Czarnowski - AVET Information and Network Security, Poland


Comparative review

VB Comparative: Windows NT 4 Workstation - February 2006

Matt Ham fully expected a bumper harvest of VB 100% awards this month, simply due to the familiarity of the Windows NT platform to the developers.

Matt Ham - Virus Bulletin


Spam Bulletin

Spam Bulletin - February 2006

This month's anti-spam news and John Graham-Cumming investigates whether Bayesian poisoning really exists.



Quick Links

Poll
The Japanese government is reported to have commissioned a 'defensive virus'. Is 'defensive' malware ever a good idea?
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No
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