ESET Science Award launches its second annual edition

Bratislava – At a time when the world is relying on scientists and science to help with the coronavirus pandemic, ESET Science Award is launching its second annual recognition contest. Its aim is to recognize outstanding scientists working in Slovakia and introduce them to the public, as well as to showcase the essential role that science plays in society. The international jury will once again be chaired by a Nobel Prize winner this year.

In 2019, ESET Science Award launched its second annual edition to recognize exceptional scientists and academics working in Slovakia. Laureates of the first award include chemist Ján Tkáč, molecular biologist Ľubomíra Tóthová, and bioinformatics scientist Tomáš Vinař.

One of the objectives of the ESET Science Award is to highlight the important role of science and scientists within society. “Today more than ever we, as a society, recognize that scientific knowledge can save thousands of lives and help us make better decisions,” says Richard Marko, CEO of ESET. “Results of a survey conducted before the launch of this year’s award show that as much as 86 percent of respondents agree that Slovakia needs stronger support for science and research. We believe that by recognizing outstanding personalities in science, we will be able to increase the public’s interest in the field, thus increasing the state’s support for it.”

The jury that decides on the laureates consists of world-renowned and respected representatives of science disciplines from around the world. The jury assesses the short-listed scientists in terms of the quality of their scientific work and research and how these overlap with society, with an emphasis on international standards. A complex evaluation process includes both quantitative and qualitative criteria, taking into account the analysis of professional work and its benefits for society, communication, and scientific ethics and integrity.

This year, a top-level evaluation process is to be overseen by an international jury chairman who is a Nobel Prize winner. As the award organizer, the ESET Foundation is hopeful that, despite the current situation with the coronavirus pandemic, it will be able to secure the chairman’s participation in person. “Accepting the award from a Nobel Prize winner has been an exceptional moment in my scientific career. Despite the laureates being decided by a high-quality international scientific jury, I am pleased that this award comes not only from scientific circles but also from the wider community. It symbolizes that society is slowly starting to recognize the role of science in people’s everyday lives,” says Jan Tkáč, the 2019 laureate in the main category, Outstanding Individual Contributor to Slovak Science.

Scientists, researchers, and academics working in Slovakia have until May 28, 2020, to submit an application for the ESET Science Award via the esetscienceaward.sk website. Like last year, this year’s award is to be split into three categories – Outstanding Individual Contributor to Slovak Science, Exceptional Young Scientist in Slovakia under the Age of 35, and Outstanding Academic. The award covers four scientific areas: natural sciences, medical and pharmaceutical sciences, technical sciences, and agricultural sciences. An award ceremony to announce the laureates is planned for October 14, 2020, subject to change based on the coronavirus pandemic situation. For more information, visit www.esetscienceaward.sk.

 

 

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About ESET
For 30 years, ESET® has been developing industry-leading IT security software and services for businesses and consumers worldwide. With solutions ranging from endpoint security to encryption and two-factor authentication, ESET’s high-performing, easy-to-use products give individuals and businesses the peace of mind to enjoy the full potential of their technology. ESET unobtrusively protects and monitors 24/7, updating defenses in real time to keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. Evolving threats require an evolving IT security company. Backed by R&D facilities worldwide, ESET became the first IT security company to earn 100 Virus Bulletin VB100 awards, identifying every single “in-the-wild” malware without interruption since 2003.

ESET investigates Grandoreiro, a trojan exploiting the coronavirus pandemic

BRATISLAVA, PRAGUE – As part of an ongoing series on Latin American banking trojans, ESET researchers take an in-depth look at Grandoreiro. This trojan targets users especially in Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Peru. Distributed almost exclusively through email spam, it has lately started to utilize fake websites capitalizing on the global coronavirus pandemic. Grandoreiro reveals a persistent effort from its authors to evade detection. Although ESET has seen Grandoreiro primarily distributed through spam, where the authors usually utilize a fake Java or Flash update, recently we have observed a shift to COVID19 related scams. The trojan was hiding in videos on fake websites promising information about the coronavirus. However, instead of playing, clicking the video leads to the download of a payload on visitors’ devices.Grandoreiro has been active since at least 2017 in Brazil and Peru, expanding to Mexico and Spain in 2019. As with other Latin American banking trojans in this series, Grandoreiro attacks its victims by displaying fake pop-up windows as a ploy to get them to divulge sensitive information.

The backdoor functionality of Grandoreiro includes manipulating windows; updating itself; capturing keystrokes; simulating mouse and keyboard actions; navigating browsers to chosen URLs; signing out and restarting machines; and blocking access to websites. Grandoreiro collects various information about affected machines and, in some versions, it also steals credentials stored in Google Chrome as well as data stored in Microsoft Outlook browsers.“For a Latin American banking trojan, Grandoreiro utilizes a surprisingly large number of tricks to evade detection and emulation. That includes many techniques to detect or even disable banking protection software,” says ESET researcher Robert Šuman, leading the team analyzing Grandoreiro. “They seem to be developing the banking trojan very rapidly. Almost every new version we see introduces some changes. We also suspect they are developing at least two variants simultaneously. Interestingly, from a technical point of view, they also utilize a very specific application of the binary padding technique that makes it hard to get rid of the padding while keeping a valid file,” adds Šuman.Unlike the majority of Latin American banking trojans, Grandoreiro utilizes quite small distribution chains. For different campaigns, it may choose a different type of downloader. These downloaders are often stored on well-known public online sharing services such as GitHub, Dropbox, Pastebin, 4shared or 4Sync.

For more technical details about Grandoreiro, read the blogpost “Grandoreiro: How engorged can an EXE get?” on WeLiveSecurity.com. Make sure to follow ESET research on Twitter for the latest news from ESET Research.

 

 

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About ESET
For 30 years, ESET® has been developing industry-leading IT security software and services for businesses and consumers worldwide. With solutions ranging from endpoint security to encryption and two-factor authentication, ESET’s high-performing, easy-to-use products give individuals and businesses the peace of mind to enjoy the full potential of their technology. ESET unobtrusively protects and monitors 24/7, updating defenses in real time to keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. Evolving threats require an evolving IT security company. Backed by R&D facilities worldwide, ESET became the first IT security company to earn 100 Virus Bulletin VB100 awards, identifying every single “in-the-wild” malware without interruption since 2003.