Defying Trends, Windows 7 Infection Rates Are on the Rise. So What?

Here's an interesting little new tidbit from Paul Thurrott's SuperSite For Windows:

Defying Trends, Windows 7 Infection Rates Are on the Rise. So What?
Security experts will tell you that hackers are turning increasingly toward native applications (like those made by Adobe) and web apps (Facebook) because OSs are getting progressively more hardened and secure. Likewise, these same experts will tell you that modern versions of Windows—like Windows 7—are more secure than older versions—like Windows XP—for basically the same reason: The newer versions have better and more modern security defenses. But according to Microsoft's latest Security Intelligence Report, Windows 7 malware infection rates bucked all previous trends by unexpectedly rising in the second half of 2010, while infection rates in the older XP OS, also unexpected, actually fell in the same time period. Now, I wouldn't jump off a bridge just yet: Overall Windows 7 infection rates are still dramatically lower than those of XP; it's just the rate trends that have changed. So, here's why this doesn't matter. According to the report, four Windows 7-based PCs out of every 1,000 were infected in the second half of 2010, up from three out of every 1,000 in the first half of 2010. Meanwhile, a comparatively huge 14 XP-based PCs out of every 1,000 were infected, down from 18 out of every 1,000, in the same time periods. What's the take-away here? That Windows 7 infection rates are on the rise? No, it's that only .4 percent of modern PCs are actually infected with any kind of malware.

SOURCE

Plus there's the point that hackers aren't going to really bothered with what is basically a "dead" systems.

(Before anyone jumps on me, I still boot up my old XP machine now n then for the fun of it, those times are diminishing though).

I found it very interesting that only 4/10ths of 1 per cent were actually infected with malware.

Let's say there's a hypothetical amount of Windows 7 users at 750,000,000. Then the .04 per cent figure would be 300,000 infected computers.

750,000,000
0.04% ×
--------------------------
300,000 =

Lets hope that it stays that low, and drop even further.

With all of the choices that we have to protect ourselves today, many of which are free, there's no reason for anyone not to be running some kind of AV/IS suite.

Plus, the largest part of the reason that computers get infected is the one between the chair & keyboard. Out of that roughly 300,000 infections (in the chart above), just how many of those users visit porn sites, download pirated software/movies/games? I'd bet that at least half of those infections are due to that type of thing. Many users are always trying to get something for nothing, that's the price that's paid for playing.

Probably half of the remaining 150,000 (75,000) most likely didn't run any security at all. An invitation for trouble. That leaves us with the final 0.01%. Sometimes bad things happens, every now & then, bad code slips by the best of AV/IS software.

Although I read about the heightened risks on the net daily, and those who believe a "zero-day" attack is coming, it's been quite some time since I've personally known of anyone (around here) getting infected. Hopefully it'll stay that way.

Cat

I bet a fair number of the affected machines are running a cracked/hacked Windows 7 install, what the percentage would be, I really have no idea though.

I agree with you, draceena. That's the chance one takes with running pirated/non genuine Windows, who knows what kind of bad code is on these discs? And there is still a fair amount of pirating going on. Some of the posts that I've seen in recent months, not just here, but a couple of forums, sounded kind of suspicious to me. The wording of a post reveals a lot, although without proof (such as a self confession), no one can really say anything.

Personally, I'd be paranoid about running these kind of OS's. If I could not afford to buy a legal Windows OS, I'd simply run Linux & be legal and safe.

I'd be willing to bet that if one bought a legal version of Windows 7, whether an upgrade, OEM or full retail version, or one that's preinstalled on a computer by a major OEM, most would be well. Provided that all updates were applied, and have a decent AV/IS software installed, and kept updated & ran, along with safe computing practices, the chance of becoming infected would be next to zero.

Cat

Only once did I get a virus, that was on XP and my fault. I was not paying attention and got a link from a friend on icq but did not check first to see if they were actually online to confirm it with them. Clicked the link and got an infection. Time and 2 AV programs later I got rid of it.
My Macs/ Linux and so far Win7 have been fine.

That one time that I got infected badly, I had at least 15 pages open, using the Safari browser. Yes, they were porn sites, but I was depending on MSE & the "Safe Search" feature in Safari to protect me.

By the time MSE was warning me, it was way too late. I couldn't run any of my security products, any online scanner, the install was shot.

I haven't been on those type of sites as of late, but if I were to, I'd use XP Mode or a Linux VM for those purposes, as it's contained within the VM, not the host OS. With 3 or 4 clicks, the entire VM is gone, period. The threat is gone.

Cat