Microsoft Releases Figures on MSE Equipped PCs – 30% Infection Rate

In what appears to have been a smart move by many users, the install of Microsoft Security Essentials has shown that many of the machines needed the help. A full 30% of the machines were infected with some form of malware says Microsoft.

In a story from down under on ITWire, the full measure of problems were detailed -

Microsoft, which launched the free Security Essentials package for Windows in late September in eight major markets, revealed the figure as it prepares to roll out the software in China.

“What we’re seeing in the early downloads is that well over 30% of people who are downloading it are requiring a fair amount of cleaning,” said Amy Barzdukas, general manager, Internet Explorer and consumer security at Microsoft.

Delivering the opening keynote at RSA Conference Europe in London, Barzdukas also noted that the problems experienced by consumers varied widely by area.

“In China, we see a lot of malicious browser modifiers. In Brazil, there’s a lot of password stealers. In Korea, there’s a lot of polymorphous viruses. There’s no one size fits all in consumer security any more than in enterprise security.”

Microsoft’s move into the consumer security space has been controversial, with critics variously arguing that Microsoft will reduce competition in the security sector and that it should concentrate on making its core operating system more secure. However, Barzdukas said that Windows itself was only a small part of the problem.

“Fewer than 15% of the vulnerabilities that are being exploited today are in the browser or the OS. Instead they’re going into third party software and add-ons.”

Barzdukas also took a pot shot at Google’s rival browser Chrome, claiming that features of its design made it less secure than Internet Explorer 8.

“As you type in that omnibox, every keystroke that you type is sending a packet to Google.”

That last claim is why the smart (or the terminally paranoid, take your pick) are using SRWare’s Iron implementation of the Google browser.

Not wanting to rain on the Microsoft parade, but I have files on my machines that have been claimed as infected, yet after looking at identical files on another machine, with identical CRCs, I see it is not true. These are files with a long term use, and also some of them checked by being newly taken from a CD or DVD install. Can you say FALSE POSITIVE, boys and girls?

Certainly MSE is better than nothing, and yet I think that the users of MSE might be those who are not the most careful, and are also not the most  informed about the modes of infection.

The good thing is that many things that otherwise might get passed on, are being stopped in their tracks.

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it’s why the background is pink – NBCA month…

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