One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
Summary: Microsoft admits that one in fourteen downloads are Windows malware. And you thought the Mac having malware trouble was news!
Yes. It's true. For the first time, Mac users have a significant malware problem. But, hey, it could be worse. You could be running Windows. After all, Microsoft, not some third-party anti-virus company trying to drum up business, has just admitted that based on analysis gained from IE 9 use, "1 out of every 14 programs downloaded is later confirmed as malware."
If I may quote from Matthew 7:5, the King James Bible, "First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
Window PCs has far, far more malware trouble than Macs, and I can't resist mentioning that after in twenty-years of Linux, we've not seen a real-world example of Linux malware--not counting the Android malware mess. Ironically, these latest appalling Windows malware numbers are shared in a Microsoft blog about how well SmartScreen Application Reputation is working in IE9.
While it's true that SmartScreen in IE9 is doing excellent work in protecting Windows users form Internet-borne malware, it leads to other questions. The biggest, to my mind, is that, since Microsoft proudly boasts that IE9's new "Application Reputation will prevent more than 20 Million additional infections per month (on top of existing SmartScreen URL reputation blocks)," why doesn't Microsoft offer IE9 to its XP users?
I mean Microsoft just said that there's an incredible amount of Windows malware out there on the Internet. Seriously Microsoft, instead of spending money of ads trying to con... convince people to shell out hard earned cash for new Windows PCs, why not port IE9 to XP. According to the April 2011 average of the various sites that measures client operating systems on the Web, Windows XP has 39.11% of the market while Windows 7 only has 28.5%. Would it really be that much trouble-any trouble?--to deliver better Internet security to the majority of your customers?
In the meantime, no matter what operating system you run, and yes that includes Macs and Linux, you need to take anti-virus software and malicious Web sites seriously. Android users, for example, can't get 99.9999% of the malware out there, but their Google application sessions can still be spied on and if you're not securing your network sessions, it doesn't matter what you're running, your Web sessions can still be hi-jacked with Firesheep.
Sure, Windows, with or without IE9 has more security problems than all the other operating systems rolled together, but today network insecurity is everyone's problem.
Related Stories:
An AppleCare support rep talks: Mac malware is "getting worse"
What a Mac malware attack looks like
Android has a gaping network security hole
AT&T readies security service to counter the mobile virus threat
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Talkback
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RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
Hey i-Naive, get a new profile pic - you look like Steven Hawkings.
The fact of the matter is if you run windows vista/7/2008/2008R2 patched, preferably IE9 or Chrome 12, and with a firewall in front of you (actually a simple NAT device) you will have 0, that's ZERO problems, (unless you go and download and install a piece of malware, which any OS has that problem).
You will also benefit from the largest software and hardware support system world! No need to run a slow VM (or dual boot) with Windows on your Cr Apple.
Additionally, if people would start setting up their users to run as standard users and not administrators, that would certainly help if they did click and run the malware.
RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
I'm fairly happy to suggest that user activity (porn, piracy and plebeian-ism) has a MUCH bigger impact on your system security than which OS you're running.
RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
Well, sounds good, but Stuxnet is considered the worst malware ever created
http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/media/security_response/whitepapers/w32_stuxnet_dossier.pdf
RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
"Additionally, if people would start setting up their users to run as standard users and not administrators"
That's Microsoft's design failure, they should be users who occasionally need elevated privileges.
Excuse me while I just log in as root !
RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
His name is Stephen Hawking, not Steven Hawkings.
Stuxnet ... so what
Stuxnet may be the worst malware ever created, but thats only because it can affect mechanical devices used in uranium enrichment plants and nuclear reactors. Its actual effect on the average user is so close to nothing it can effectively be ignored.
Stuxnets was aimed at air-gapped security systems (no exterior network connection) by being transported via USB stick. The biggest security exploit it used were not the 0-day exploits but the hard-coded back door into the Seimens operating systems.
Maybe windows security could be better but Stuxnet would of been completely innefective if Seimens used effecctive security measures.
Reply to simlawstu.
Yes, there are a lot of reasons why ChromeOS just might take off for the
Windows has WAY too man attack vectors for the enterprise and government.
RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
There's certainly no arguing with your point. An "OS" with no features and supporting no applications should be somewhat safer than Windows, especially when factoring in that without a network connection, it has absolutely no functionality whatsoever.
RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
DonnieBoy thinks computers should be only for surfing web other than that there is no use, thats why he preaches about ChromeOS always.
RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
Well, in case you missed it, enterprise applications are moving to web
Rama.NET: You never heard of off-line web applications? You never heard of
RE: One in fourteen Internet downloads is Windows malware
I developed few of them, so I know there are offline web apps with native clients. This is available even before Google started offering. The issue here, it has been tried by Oracle and the then Sun Micro and it is the same. I hate say that they sucked a lot in performance wise. This is always true for online applications also. Nope, Web applications will never kill Native Apps, unless HTML also gives the same richness in the User experience that native apps provide, whether it is Windows, Cocoa (both iOS, and MacOSX) or X-Windows and its derivatives on Unix Clones, otherwise you would not see so many apps and stores to host them on these mobile platforms. Not everything fits for HTML scenario and not everything fits into native app.
Rama.NET: You still are not listening. Google Chrome will have
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_client
They are also working on Portable Native Client, that will have intermediate code that is translated into local machine code on the final device, so, one binary would run on either x86 or Arm for instance. Again, this is for C/C++ code. Much different that a virtual machine like for Java or C#.
Reply to DonnieBoy.
I found the material deleted the next day when I referenced Wikipedia information. It's better to just copy the info. and back it up and use as needed without references.