Blog

4
Feb

Hackers Widely Abusing Excel 4.0 Macro to Distribute Malware

Excel introduced Excel 4.0 Macros (XLM) feature in 1992. Since then, this style has been commonly used to abuse Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). In 2020, it became popular amongst attackers as this macro is challenging to catch in detection; thus, many cybersecurity providers struggle to defend against Excel 4 macro-based attacks. This allows attackers to explore deeper into XLM

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2
Feb

US Colonial pipeline attack timeline at AVAR2021

The colonial pipeline ransomware attacks $5 million paid, stole 100GB of Data, shut down the pipeline and website presence. It was the largest Cyberattack on an oil infrastructure target in the history of the United States. Our team started research on Darkside from an early uprising of the ransomware-as-a-Service operator and tracking all intelligence covered by the R&D center and partnered malware

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24
Dec

FontOnLake: Previously unknown malware family targeting Linux

ESET researchers discovered a malware family with tools that show signs they’re used in targeted attacks. ESET researchers have discovered a previously unknown malware family that utilizes custom and well-designed modules, targeting operating systems running Linux. Modules used by this malware family, which we dubbed FontOnLake, are constantly under development and provide remote access to the operators, collect credentials, and

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9
Aug

Structure and Directors

AVAR was founded in 1998 because of a perceived gap in coverage of anti-virus organisations. At that time Europe and the Americas were served by EICAR and Virus Bulletin, but researchers in Asia were left isolated. The observant reader might have noticed that our Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A) lists the date of incorporation as 17th July 2013, so why

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9
Aug

Welcome

Welcome to AVAR, whether you are a Member, thinking of becoming a Member, or just interested in finding out more about us. While other blogs here focus on technical topics, I will cover AVAR’s history, organisation and culture. This is information that usually spreads informally when we meet at conferences but, because of COVID-19, our 2020 conference was virtual and

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