In the first official presentation, Thomas Siebert, system security research manager at
G Data, spelt out how current attacks by banking Trojans are being carried out and how G Data's BankGuard technology offers protection against such attacks ("Advanced Techniques in Modern Banking Trojans").
Joint commitment against cyber crime
A broad spectrum of subjects was covered at BotConf. Eric Freyssinet, initiator of the site botnets.fr, chaired the event. Besides banking Trojans, subjects such as spam, proxy botnets, legal questions about botnet takedowns, the statistical assessment of data, exploit kits on web servers, analysis tools, targeted attacks and criminal prosecution issues were presented and discussed. It was pleasing to see that participants from numerous countries involved in the ACDC project (14 were represented) and at BotConf (23 countries represented) were focused on a joint goal. Regardless of whether the representatives were research groups at universities, companies from the IT security industry, independent initiatives such as MalwareMustDie or representatives of criminal prosecution authorities – complete commitment was evident among all of the participants.
Numerous methods for fighting botnets were discussed, and these need to be complementary. Client-side protection, protection at the network level, taking over botnet control servers and prosecuting the instigators are the most promising options for fighting botnets.
At G Data, we think the right thing would be a combination of all of these approaches with as much cooperation as possible between the participants. The past days in Nantes have shown that we are not alone.
We are pleased to have been allowed to see how the French hosts created an inspiring atmosphere in which many new ideas were generated. We are looking forward to the next BotConf and to continued collaboration in the ACDC project.
Further reactions regarding the BotConf 2013 conference:
http://blog.crimenumerique.fr/2013/12/14/botconf-premiere-conference-sur-la-lutte-contre-les-botnets-bilan/
http://blog.rootshell.be/2013/12/06/botconf-2013-wrap-up-day-1/
http://www.virusbtn.com/blog/2013/12_10.xml
http://bl0g.cedricpernet.net/post/2013/12/12/Botconf-2013-A-real-success
http://labs.umbrella.com/2013/12/13/botconf-baythreat-2013/
http://malwaremustdie.blogspot.de/2013/12/short-talk-in-botconf-2013-kelihos.html