Oh, Vienna...

Walked in the cold air
Freezing breath on a window plane
Lying and waiting
A man in the dark in a picture frame
So mystic and soulful
A voice reaching out in a piercing cry
It stays with you until

The feeling has gone only you and I
It means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh, Vienna...

Those are just part of the lyrics to the song 'Vienna' by 'Ultravox'. Their lead singer is none other than 'Midge Ure'. It seemed a nice link to this post, hope you agree?'

Why am I waffling on about Ultravox and their song Vienna? Well, I'm travelling to Vienna today so that I can attend, and present at the premier anti-malware and anti-spam conference of the year; this being Virus Bulletin's international conference.

This year it is back in Europe, which means that travel is easier, for me and the other Europeans that attend, although it is harder on those from the US, Canada and Asia-pacific.

I was informed that my paper is now on the main agenda and I get to 'do-my-thing' on Thursday morning [20th of September] on the corporate stream. This is the seventeenth time the conference has run, and the tenth time I have attended and presented at it.

For those of you that have forgotten, [shame on you! ;-)] my paper and presentation is on malware history and statistics. Here's the abstract:

Abstract:
This paper will discuss the observed trends that have emerged since the start of the malware problem on DOS and Windows and how things have changed over the years.

The paper will discuss examples of the following:

• Malware types.


• Targets; file formats and operating systems.


• Obfuscation and related tricks and counter techniques.


• The use of social-engineering by malware authors.


• The cat and mouse game between the malware authors and vendors.


• The challenges of classification of malware.


• Changes in motivations.

The paper will discuss the changes witnessed in the malware/anti-malware arena seen since the start of it all with Brain. This will cover the emergence of stealth, polymorphism, macro and script malware and go on to cover the growth of mass-mailing worms, bots and the rebirth of stealth as rootkits.

This paper will include clear trend analysis showing the major shifts in malware over the years using a consistent data source which I have compiled. Key shifts from both sides of the problem will be covered, such as polymorphism [including TPE and DAME] and the resulting move to emulation and generic decryption to counter the threat. The growth in the use of packers, compressors and social engineering will also be covered.

Finally, the paper will cover the change in motivation for the malware authors, not just covering the excuses/reasons that they offer, but also the real reasons. It will also cover the changing landscapes of types or malware used and the now often confused classification situation.

The paper will be made available on my web site early next week. I will post an entry with a link to it once I have got back from Vienna. I will also try and post one of my usual conference reviews.

The video of the song can be found here. Enjoy!

BTW, for anyone reading this that is attending the conference please feel free to say hello or have a chat with me, I don't bite, honest! ;-)