Virus Bulletin - July 2005


Editor: Helen Martin

Technical Consultant: Matt Ham

Technical Editor: Morton Swimmer

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

2005-07-01


Comment

Adapt or die

With any great invention, there is always a flip side just waiting to be exploited and the Internet has proved no exception.

Matt Peachy - IronPort Systems

Virus analysis

Got [Mac]root

No doubt to the surprise of some in the Macintosh community, the MacOS X platform has a rootkit. Peter Ferrie provides all the details of OSX/Weapox.

Peter Ferrie - Symantec Security Response, USA

Feature

Threats to online banking

Incidents of malicious applications that steal financial account information have increased dramatically over the last year. Candid Wueest demonstrates that the biggest threat to online banking is malicious code executed carelessly on the end-user's computer, and advises users of online banking to tread carefully.

Candid Wueest - Symantec Security Response, Ireland

Spammer readme

Brian McWilliams explains why, despite the recent outbreak of Sober.Q, which showered the Internet with neo-Nazi propaganda emails, he disagrees with the notion that virus writers and spammers are in cahoots.

Brian McWilliams - Independent writer, USA

The ideal tools of an ideal virus lab

Each profession has its own set of tools, and whenever there is an improvement in those tools, the work of that profession becomes more efficient. Every company in the anti-virus industry has its own confidential technology for studying malicious and potentially malicious code. However, creating all the necessary tools for malware analysis in-house is not always economical, particularly for small companies. This article is aimed at anyone who is a potential user or creator of malware analysis tools.

Jozsef Matrai - VirusBuster Ltd, Hungary

Q & A

Microsoft's dog-and-bone OS - smart and safe?

Juha Saarinen looks at security issues related to mobile phones running on the Windows OS

Juha Saarinen - Independent technology writer, New Zealand

Product review

Symantec AntiVirus 10

Detailed testing and analysis of Symantec AntiVirus 10

Matt Ham - Virus Bulletin

 

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