Malicious Software Research...

[Teddy Rogers]

Malicious Software Research - Overview

Some of you may already have noticed during the past couple of days the board has been populated with new forums. I would like to take the opportunity to explain why these are here and what they do.

The whole purpose of these forums is to analyse, break down and discuss a piece of malicious software. Let me make it perfectly clear now these forums are not and will not be used for the construction and distribution of malicious software.

Malicious software is used in these forums as a term to describe; malware, virus', trojans, spyware and any other software that either destroys, monitors, steals and in some way be harmful either to a computer system or a computer user.

Why study malicious software? Simple reason is most malicious software these days are either packed, protected, crypted or use methods to try and hide itself from detection. A lot of people here are skilled at unpacking, debugging, analysing, documenting and as a result of this a genuine interest in reverse code engineering. They are willing to discuss and share their knowledge of the schemes and implementations used in code. The subjects have been overlapping for many years.

Here is a brief explanation of the forums:

Latest Threats - This is a forum to post known threats that could be interesting to reverse. Please post a threat and if possible a link to the target.

Malicious Software Analysis - If you are interested in studying and breaking down a target and would like to discuss it with others as-well-as being provided with help if required this is the place to do it.

Digital Forensics - A forum to discuss new techniques and methods for analysing a target in a safe and proper manner or used to find best methods and practices.

Seminars and Conferences

I think this should be self-explanatory. Used to announce an interesting seminar, conference or meeting taking place. Can also be used to let people know you will be attending a particular function and hopefully meet up with some of the other members on this board.

All these forum areas are not set in stone and could be changed or modified over time depending on the interest taking place. Of course if you have any suggestions or criticisms about the new areas we would like to know about it.

I hope these forums will be of interest to members here and will be used wisely! Enjoy...

Ted.