We're not really set up to use the ThreatBlog as a full strength Questions and Answers resource, but we got so many questions after my blog yesterday about April 1st hoaxes that I feel obliged to try to answer some of them. There is no truth in the rumour that the eCity of San Diego

* http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/mikado/webopera/mk105a.html Kevin Townsend posted a blog in response to a piece by Mike Rothman at Securosis. Mike’s piece on “The Death of Product Reviews” makes some pretty good points about security product reviews in general. Kevin’s piece is more specific to anti-malware. He too makes some useful discussion points about the value or otherwise

We're now getting into preparations for the next meeting of AMTSO (Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization), on 25th-26th February in Santa Clara. In the meantime, I wrote an article for Virus Bulletin called "AMTSOlutely Fabulous" about "the story so far". It's just appeared in the January edition of the magazine. Of course, it's only available to subscribers

Sunbelt have responded to an article in Infosecurity about what I described way back in the early 90s (when putting together the alt.comp.virus FAQ) as the “thorny issue of malware naming”. Well, I’ve been banging the drum about educating users and pretty much everyone else away from the concept that malware naming is useful for quite

Apparently it's not just me that's sceptical about the value of security crystal ball-gazing. Tim Wilson of Dark Reading takes us (the security industry) to task for being "subjective" and inconsistent in our predictions for the coming year. Strangely, although he does quote an ESET blog (an observation of Randy's) in his selection of predictions he

 I notice that our own Jeff Debrosse, having joined the ranks of ESET presenters at Virus Bulletin conferences this year with our paper on "Behaviour Analysis for the Next Decade"  (http://www.eset.com/threat-center/blog/2009/12/02/malice-through-the-looking-glass-conference-paper), has also swelled the ranks of ESET contributors to the magazine this month, with an opinion piece on “Cybersecurity awareness for the next generation.”.

[Update, courtesy of Mikko: this worm targets at least one Dutch bank, and activates when users go to the online bank with an infected iPhone ] [Update 2, courtesy of Paul Ducklin: how to change the password of an infected phone. I could just tell you what the password is, but you might want to read

I learned a new word today. "Glurge", according to snopes.com, an essential resource when checking the validity of dubious chain letters, glurge is the sending of inspirational (and supposedly true) tales … that often … undermine their messages by fabricating and distorting historical fact in the guise of offering a "true story". I came across

The anti-malware industry isn't a suitable environment for the thin-skinned. We get used to receiving "more kicks than ha'pence" (see http://www.virusbtn.com/spambulletin/archive/2006/11/vb200611-OK).. In particular, I've grown accustomed to the fact that many people expect all the following from an AV product: Absolute Protection Absolute Convenience Absolutely no  False Positives Absolutely no charge False positives (FPs) are

It won’t come as a surprise to regular readers of this blog that there’s a lot of fake/rogue anti-malware about. (see http://www.eset.com/threat-center/blog/category/fake-anti-malware-fake-software). However, a report released at RSA Europe goes some way towards quantifying that threat, and has created something of a stir in the media. That’s to be expected: journalists tend to love facts and figures. Anti-malware