Learn Cyber Security

Next Generation of Automated Malware Analysis and Detection In the last ten years, malicious software – malware – has become increasingly sophisticated, both in terms of how it is used and what it can do. This rapid evolution of malware is essentially a cyber “arms race” run by organizations with geopolitical agendas and profit motives. The resulting losses for victims have run to billions of dollars. The global move to digitize personal and sensitive information as well as to computerize and interconnect critical infrastructure has far outpaced the capabilities of the security measures that have been put into place. As a result, cyber criminals can act with near impunity as they break into networks to steal data and hijack resources. It is difficult to stop their criminal malware and nearly impossible to track them down after an attack has been perpetrated. What we see is that today’s network defenses are aggressively evaded by malware that is even moderately advanced. Why is t...

Hybrid Code Analysis versus State of the Art Android Backdoors Mobile Malware is evolving… can the good guys beat the new challenges? Mainstream usage of handheld devices running the popular Android OS is the main stimulation for mobile malware evolution. The rapid growth of malware and infected Android application package (APK) files found on the many app stores is an important new challenge for mobile IT security. Sophisticated anti-reverse engineering techniques, such as encryption and heavy obfuscation, are becoming malware industry standard. In June, an unofficial, but popular app store released more than 50.000 new applications (AppBrain, 2013). The Figure 1 outlines the rising trend of new application releases on AppBrain with a growing portion of low quality applications. About 13 billion APK file download have been registered worldwide up until today, while this is counting only the official app stores (AndroLib, 2013). The problem we face today i...

Glimpse of Static Malware Analysis The internet has become an essential part of our day-to-day life. We are using it to communicate, exchange information, perform bank transactions, etc. Researchers are working around the clock to expand this service and optimize it. Hackers, on the other hand, are leveraging this crucial service to perform cybercrime activities, such as stealing credit cards. Over the past few years, talented and geek computer users were exploiting and identifying applications and operating systems’ vulnerabilities for fun. However, the game has changed and shifted from a fun activity towards a profit-oriented business. Some research [3] indicates that the average global economy loss due to cybercrime and espionage is $500 billion annually. Hackers use malicious software (malware), e.g., virus, worm, or rootkit, to perform their activities. Therefore, understanding and analyzing the malware is very important to protect the end users. Moreover, it will help t...

Setting Up Your Own Malware Analysis Lab With new malware attacks making news everyday and compromising company’s network and critical infrastructures around the world, malware analysis is critical for anyone who responds to such incidents. In this article you will learn to setup a safe environment to analyze malicious software and understand its behaviour. Malware is a piece of software which causes harm to a computer system without the owner’s consent. Viruses, Trojans, worms, backdoors, rootkits, scareware and spyware can all be considered as malwares. Malware Analysis Malware analysis is the process of understanding the behaviour and characteristics of malware, how to detect and eliminate it. Why Malware Analysis? There are many reasons why we would want to analyze a malware, below to name just a few: • Determine the nature and purpose of the malware i.e whether the malware is an information stealing   malware, http bot, spam bot, rootkit, keylogger, RAT etc....