VB - 2006 07 Virus Bulletin - July 2006

Virus Bulletin - July 2006

Editor: Helen Martin

Technical Consultant: John Hawes

Technical Editor: Morton Swimmer

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

2006-07-01

Abstract

Less is more (comment); Tumours and polips (virus analysis); Malware, the new driver of PC sales (feature); Fixing 'the virus problem'? (opinion)


Comment

Less is more

'In a perfect world, it would be nice to have no updates at all – more isn’t better.' Richard Ford, Florida Institute of Technology, USA

Richard Ford - Florida Institute of Technology, USA


News

New faces

VB welcomes new Technical Consultant.



Big bucks

AV software revenues increase.



m00p group members arrested

Three members of virus-writing gang held.



False positive reduction

Amendment to VB's June Windows XP comparative review.



Malware prevalence report

May 2006

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

Tumours and polips

The W32/Polip virus caught the AV industry by surprise recently – we didn't expect to see a parasitic virus, and we certainly didn't expect to see anything of such apparent complexity. However, looks can be deceiving. Peter Ferrie reveals all.

Peter Ferrie - Symantec Security Response, USA


Feature

Malware, the new driver of PC sales

With a lack of killer applications to spur the market, is the PC industry developing an unhealthy reliance on malicious software? Brian McWilliams presents his thoughts.

Brian McWilliams - Independent writer, USA


Opinion

Fixing 'the virus problem'?

'Will the new security features in Windows Vista fix the virus problem?' was the question that nearly knocked Andrew Lee off his seat in surprise. Once he had recovered his composure, he decided to provide a more detailed answer than the simple, rather obvious 'no'.

Andrew Lee - ESET, UK


Spam Bulletin

Spam Bulletin - July 2006

Anti-spam news; Blinding POPFile via a single-word attack (feature); Hamfighting - how acceptable are false positives? (feature); Phish fingering (book review); EU Spam Symposium 2006 (conference report)




Poll

Should anti-virus software be free for personal use?
Yes
No
I don't know

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VB100 certification

VB100 VB's testing team put 24 anti-malware products to the test on the server version of Microsoft's latest iteration of the Windows platform: Windows Server 2008. John Hawes has all the details on which products managed to secure a VB100 award and which need have a little more work to do.
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