virustotal
Latest
Inside Chronicle, Alphabet’s cybersecurity moonshot
Fifteen years ago, cybersecurity could be boiled down to a simple strategy: Secure the perimeter. Experts fought against malware and other nefarious code by implementing firewalls and other point-of-entry defenses. Since then, however, companies have moved their operations online and allowed employees to bring their own devices (BYOD) to work. The so-called perimeter has dissolved in the process, forcing security practitioners to prioritize tracking, understanding and ultimately making judgments about the information flowing both inside and outside of their company.
Google's VirusTotal can tell if your firmware is infected
BIOS firmware is the root of your electronic devices, dictating communication between a computer's hardware and operating system from the boot-up process. It's an insulated layer in most devices, and organizations including the National Security Agency have focused on infecting firmware because it's not covered in standard virus-detection scans. Google's latest VirusTotal tool changes that -- in a blog post, VirusTotal security engineer Francisco Santos outlines the dangers of firmware malware and how the company can now pinpoint that bad code.
Report: Kaspersky developed malware to trip up competition
Reuters reports that a pair of former employees have accused Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs of building malware to trick its competition into flagging and quarantining important, non-viral, files on customers' computers. Basically the malware would inject malicious bits of code into important PC files -- like, say, your printer's .ini files -- which would then be flagged as a false positive and quarantined or deleted.
Hackers are using Google's antivirus tool to test their attacks
Google's VirusTotal site can be very handy if you're worried about malware; upload a file and dozens of antivirus tools will check to see if it's malicious. However, it's now clear that this site can hinder as much as it helps. Security research Brandon Dixon has spotted several big hacking teams using VirusTotal to test attacks before launch, including two linked to state-sponsored operations. They effectively treat it like a debugging tool -- if one or more scanners detect a pre-release virus, the developers tweak their code until it slips under the radar. In some cases, they've even put old malware through the site to make it dangerous again.
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for May 27, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Google quietly snaps up internet security firm VirusTotal for an undisclosed amount
Having recently wrapped up the Motorola Mobility acquisition, Google's now moving onto different pastures and spending its cash elsewhere -- more specifically on an outfit known as VirusTotal. And, as the internet security company confidently points out, the deal is "great news for you, and bad news for malware generators because Google's infrastructure will ensure that our tools are always ready, right when you need them." As for the Android creator, well, let's just say it, too, is happy to have the VirusTotal team aboard -- who, in the process, joins the likes of Sparrow and QuickOffice as part of Mountain View's most recent purchases. Google's official response on the matter can be found below, courtesy of The Next Web. Security is incredibly important to our users and we've invested many millions of dollars to help keep them safe online. VirusTotal also has a strong track record in web security, and we're delighted to be able to provide them with the infrastructure they need to ensure that their service continues to improve.
