Waledac Infection Check

Tuesday, March 2. 2010
admin
Ben Stock has implemented a web service to check a given IP address for infection with Waledac, similar to the Conficker Eye Chart. The idea is that we are currently tracking Waledac as part of the take-down effort and thus we have a pretty good overview of the individual bots within the botnet. Therefore we are in a position to determine if we have seen a given IP address in the recent past as a bot, which indicates that this IP address might be related to a Waledac infection. Of course, effects like NAT or DHCP need to be taken into account: if an IP address is not listed, this does not necessarily mean that you are not infected.

The check is available at http://mwanalysis.org/waledac/, feedback is welcome!

Call for Papers: LEET'10

Monday, January 25. 2010
admin
The submissions deadline for the 3rd USENIX Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats (LEET '10) is quickly approaching. Please submit your work by Thursday, February 25, 2010, 11:59 p.m. PST. The full call for papers is available at http://www.usenix.org/events/leet10/cfp/, see an overview below:
Topics
Now in its third year, LEET continues to provide a unique forum for the discussion of threats to the confidentiality of our data, the integrity of digital transactions, and the dependability of the technologies we increasingly rely on. We encourage submissions of papers that focus on the malicious activities themselves (e.g., reconnaissance, exploitation, privilege escalation, rootkit installation, attack), our responses as defenders (e.g., prevention, detection, and mitigation), or the social, political, and economic goals driving these malicious activities and the legal and ethical codes guiding our defensive responses.

Overview
Information technology (IT) adds $2 trillion annually to the US economy alone. While these technologies have enabled significant global economic growth, they have become rich targets for malicious activity. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicated that cyber crime reached an all-time high in 2008; cyber crime now ranks as the FBI's third highest priority, behind such dramatic threats as counter-terrorism and counter-espionage. Much of this malicious activity is driven by economic incentives, but recently we have seen the emergence of highly visible, politically motivated attacks. While the motivations for malicious behavior and the technical mechanisms that enable them remain rich areas of research, it is clear that today our global society is faced with a wide range of cyber criminal activities: spam, phishing, denial of service, click fraud, etc.

Workshop Format
LEET aims to be a true workshop, with the twin goals of fostering the development of preliminary work and helping to unify the broad community of researchers and practitioners who focus on worms, bots, spam, spyware, phishing, DDoS, and the ever-increasing palette of large-scale Internet-based threats. Intriguing preliminary results and thought-provoking ideas will be strongly favored; papers will be selected for their potential to stimulate discussion in the workshop. Each author will have 15 minutes to present his or her work, followed by 15 minutes of discussion with the workshop participants.

Call for Papers: WEIS'10

Monday, January 18. 2010
admin
I am happy to serve on the program committee of the 9th Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS). The Call for Papers is now available. WEIS will take place on June 7-8, 2010 at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

Important dates are:
  • Submissions due: February 22, 2010
  • Notification of acceptance: April 2, 2010
  • Workshop: June 7-8, 2010

Information security continues to grow in importance, as threats proliferate, privacy erodes, and attackers find new sources of value. Yet the security of information systems depends on more than just technology. Good security requires an understanding of the incentives and tradeoffs inherent to the behavior of systems and organizations. As society’s dependence on information technology has deepened, policy makers, including the President of the United States, have taken notice. Now more than ever, careful research is needed to accurately characterize threats and countermeasures, in both the public and private sectors.

The Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS) is the leading forum for interdisciplinary scholarship on information security, combining expertise from the fields of economics, social science, business, law, policy and computer science. Prior workshops have explored the role of incentives between attackers and defenders, identified market failures dogging Internet security, and assessed investments in cyber-defense. This workshop will build on past efforts using empirical and analytic tools to not only understand threats, but also strengthen security through novel evaluations of available solutions. How should information risk be modeled given the constraints of rare incidence and high interdependence? How do individuals’ and organizations’ perceptions of privacy and security color their decision making? How can we move towards a more secure information infrastructure and code base while accounting for the incentives of stakeholders?

The full Call for Papers is available at http://weis2010.econinfosec.org/cfp.html.

Call for Papers: DIMVA 2010

Sunday, December 27. 2009
admin
I am happy to be a member of the program committee for the Seventh Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware & Vulnerability Assessment (DIMVA 2010). The Call for Papers is now available and we are looking forward to review your submissions. DIMVA will take place in Bonn, Germany on July 8-9 2010.

  • Deadline for paper submission: February 5, 2010

  • Notification of acceptance/rejection: April 5, 2010

  • Final camera-ready copies due: April 26, 2010

  • Conference: July 8-9, 2010

The annual DIMVA conference serves as a premier forum for advancing the state of the art in intrusion detection, malware detection, and vulnerability assessment. Each year DIMVA brings together international experts from academia, industry and government to present and discuss novel research in these areas. DIMVA is organized by the special interest group Security - Intrusion Detection and Response (SIDAR) of the German Informatics Society (GI). The conference proceedings will appear in Springer's Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series.

DIMVA solicits submission of high-quality, original scientific work.
This year we invite two types of paper submissions:
  • Full papers, presenting novel and mature research results. Full papers are limited to 20 pages, prepared according to the instructions provided below. They will be reviewed by the program committee, and papers accepted for presentation at the conference will be included in the proceedings.

  • Short papers (extended abstracts), presenting original, still ongoing work that has not yet reached the maturity required for a full paper. Short papers are limited to 10 pages, prepared according to the instructions provided below. They will also be reviewed by the program committee, and papers accepted for presentation at the conference will be included in the proceedings (containing Extended Abstract in the title).

The full Call for Papers is available at http://dimva2010.fkie.fraunhofer.de/cfp-dimva2010.txt

Call for Papers: EuroSec 2010

Wednesday, November 25. 2009
admin
The next edition of the European Workshop on System Security (EuroSec 2010) will take place on the 13th of April, 2010, in Paris, France. Please find below the call for papers.

About EuroSec:
EuroSec is a new workshop associated with the Annual ACM SIGOPS EuroSys conference. The workshop aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, system administrators, system programmers, and others interested in the latest advances in the security of computer systems and networks. The focus of the workshop is on novel, practical, systems-oriented work.

Important dates:
  • Paper submission: February 7, 2010 (Hard deadline, no extensions), 5pm, PST
  • Acceptance notification: March 1, 2010
  • Final paper due: March 12, 2010
  • Workshop: April 13, 2010

Continue reading "Call for Papers: EuroSec 2010"