Two years on from “Is there a lawyer in the lab”, greyware and Possibly Unwanted Applications offer serious challenges for security vendors.
First published in Virus Bulletin 2011 Conference Proceedings*

The Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) has shaken up the AV testing world and attracted much controversy. But has it outlived its usefulness? And what is the future of detection testing?
First published in Virus Bulletin 2011 Conference Proceedings*

Presented at the 2011 EICAR conference in May 2011, this paper contrasts existing malicious and legitimate technology and marketing, considering ways in which integration of security packages might mitigate the current wave of fake applications and services.

This paper, presented at the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (2010), and to which ESET’s Pierre-Marc Bureau was a contributor, discusses alternative approaches to understanding botnet mechanisms, using “in the lab” experiments involving at-scale emulated botnets.

This paper, presented at the 2010 AVAR conference summarizes the kind of problems that arise when simulated malware is used inappropriately in detection testing, with particular emphasis on the history and correct use of the EICAR test file.

How and why a group of researchers replicated a botnet for experimental purposes, and what use they made of the results.
First published in Virus Bulletin 2010 Conference Proceedings*

Considers the good, the bad, and the ugly in comparative testing, and explores how to lie (or even inadvertently mislead) with detection statistics.
First published in Virus Bulletin 2010 Conference Proceedings*

Does WildList testing still have a place in testing and certification when dynamic and whole product testing methodologies are now preferred in most testing contexts?
First published in Virus Bulletin 2010 Conference Proceedings*

This paper looks at the implications in the age of the botnet of the “Some Other Dude Did It” and “it must have been a Trojan” defences against conviction for possession of illegal material, especially pornography.
Presented at the 4th Cybercrime Forensics Education & Training (CFET 2010) Conference in September 2010.

A summary of how the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization has developed in the past few years and the way in which the AV and testing industries have responded to those developments.
Presented at the 4th Cybercrime Forensics Education & Training (CFET 2010) Conference in September 2010.