Virus Bulletin - January 2008

Editor: Helen Martin

Technical Consultant: John Hawes

Technical Editor: Morton Swimmer

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

2008-01-01

Abstract

A richer, but more dangerous web (comment); Botnet monitoring (feature); Rule-driven malware identification and classification (feature); Inside rogue Flash ads (feature); VB2008 Ottawa (call for papers); Agnitum Outpost Security Suite Pro 2008 (product review)


Comment

A richer, but more dangerous web

'The accessing of media-rich, collaborative sites by employees is already cause for concern in terms of both employee productivity and security.' Mark Murtagh, Websense.

Mark Murtagh - Websense, USA


News

Guidelines issued for UK hacker tool ban

Government issues guidelines in response to lobbying.



Malware prevalence report

November 2007

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.



Features

Botnet monitoring

Despite the best efforts of the IT security industry it looks like the malicious bot is here to stay. Andrei Gherman looks at how botnet monitoring can provide information about bots as well as helping to keep the threat under control.

Andrei Gherman - Avira, Germany


Rule-driven malware identification and classification

Over the last few years anti-virus researchers have faced an increasing volume of malware samples arriving at their research labs on a daily basis. Víctor Álvarez presents a simple, rule-driven approach to malware identification and classification that complements the manual work of the malware researcher by compensating for the weaknesses of the human brain.

Víctor M. Álvarez - PandaLabs, Spain


Inside rogue Flash ads

As malicious web ads become increasingly common, Dennis Elser and Micha Pekrul take a close look at a Flash advertising banner belonging to the SWF.AdHijack family.

Dennis Elser - Secure Computing, Germany & Micha Pekrul - Secure Computing, Germany


Call for papers

VB2008 Ottawa

Calling all speakers.



Product review

Agnitum Outpost Security Suite Pro 2008

John Hawes discovers how firewall expert Agnitum has fared having added malware detection to its Outpost Security Suite product.

John Hawes - Virus Bulletin, UK


Calendar

Anti-malware industry events

Must-attend events in the anti-malware industry - dates, locations and further details.



Spam Bulletin

Spam Bulletin - January 2008

Anti-spam news; 2007: the year of the social engineer? (feature)



Quick Links

Poll
The Japanese government is reported to have commissioned a 'defensive virus'. Is 'defensive' malware ever a good idea?
Yes
No
I don't know
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