May 15th, 2007
Rutkowska launches Invisible Things Labs startup
Polish hacker Joanna Rutkowska has branched out on her own, launching a new security services startup called Invisible Things Labs.
Rutkowska, an elite hacker who specializes in offensive rootkit research, said the new company will focus mainly on operating system security — system compromises, stealth malware, anti-virus and HIPS product assessments, and OS hardening.
She said a big part of company's business will be investigations of unusual incidents, including analysis of sophisticated targeted malware when there is a suspicion that a company's trade secrets are stolen
Rutkowska has teamed up former COSEINC Advanced Malware Labs researcher Alexander Tereshkin, aka 90210, in the formation of the new company.
Tereshkin is a well-known reverse engineer and Windows kernel expert. Like Rutkowska, he is skilled in rootkit technology and kernel exploitation.
Invisible Things Labs will have a major presence at the Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas later this year where Rutkowska and Tereshkin are scheduled to manage a training course on stealth malware.
This course is focused on Windows systems (and Vista x64 specifically), although some of the concepts presented, like Blue Pill-like malware or methods for cheating hardware based memory acquisition, are OS-independent.
Rutkowska is promising a significant amount of previously unpublished techniques, code, and ideas during the two Black Hat courses.
Ryan Naraine is a journalist and security evangelist at Kaspersky Lab. He manages Threatpost.com, a security news portal. Here is Ryan's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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