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Malware Defense History and its Secrets
(An Unorthodox Approach to the History of Malware Defense)

by Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov.

Contents

Foreword

Ch 1. Introduction

Ch 2. A Note on Virus Paranoia

• The Problem of False Positives in the Anti Virus Defense
• Excessive usage of AV Software can be a problem

Ch 3.  History overview

Ch 4. 1988-1997 Fighting File and Boot Viruses

• Historical overview
• Fighting boot viruses
• Fighting file virus infections

Ch 5. 1995-2000 Fighting MS-Word based macro Viruses

• General principles of fighting macro virus infections
• Doc to RTF conversion as a virus defense strategy
• Using F-macro and other simple command line tools

Ch 6. 1997-2005 Fighting mail worms

Ch 7 2000-2005 Fighting network worms

Ch 8.  Other threat: Email scams, hoaxes and pranks (1996-2007)

• Fighting email scams
• Fighting Hoaxes
• Using hoax-related humor as an awareness training tool
  • Hoax Quiz
  • "Good Time" hoax parody
•  Fighting Pranks

Supplement:  Some Notes on Help Desk Level Virus Incidents Troubleshooting

Webliography

Supplement 1. Virus-related jargon dictionary

Supplement 2: File Virus Gallery

Supplement 3: Selected MS Word based macro viruses and worms

• CAP.A ar the moment of writing this is the most common macro virus
• Concept - mostly eliminated macro virus
• Wazzu - mostly eliminated macro virus
• NOP - quite rare macro virus
• NPAD - quite rare macro virus
• Sharefun - Dangerous MS Word-based macro virus that was pretty rare, but knowing about which could be beneficial
• Mellissa --  a Worm Parasiting on Ms Office 97 Architectural Problems and MS Word Users' Ignorance

Standard disclaimer: The statements, views and opinions presented in the e-book are those of the author and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the author present and former employers, SDNP or any other organization the author may be associated with. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose.

• MS Excel-based macro viruses

Supplement 4: Selected executable worms

• Hybris
• Nimda
• Magistr
• Klez.h