I've just returned from Canterbury in the UK. One of the reasons I was there was to present a paper on malware naming at CFET 2009 (3rd International Conference on Cybercrime Forensics Education & Training). It was an excellent conference, and I'll have more to say about that later (and the paper will be available shortly on our white papers page).

Earlier on, though, I was a couple of AMTSO meetings. As I've mentioned here quite a few times before, ESET is highly committed to the aims of AMTSO (the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization): not only are we highly active members, but I recently joined the Board of Directors, and one of the meetings I attended in Canterbury was between the BoD and the AMTSO Advisory Board.

I have plenty to say about that, too, when I've finished a paper that has to be submitted by Friday, but Neil Rubenking, author, journalist and reviewer, and a valued member of the AB, has already covered some of that ground pretty well, so for the moment I'll refer you to some blogs he's published on the subject:

http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2009/08/meet_the_amtso_board.php
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2009/08/what_is_the_amtso.php
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2009/09/going_forward_with_amtso.php
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2009/09/who_cares_about_amtso.php

David Harley
Director of Malware Intelligence