Computers 5 X more likely to get Malware without Anti-Virus

[Hum]

Computers with no antivirus are five times more likely to get infected with malware than those with protection, according to Microsoft. In the first quarter of 2012, the company found malicious e-mail attachments on almost 3 million computers and detected 7 million Keygens. The activation key generators that users install with ?free? software, movies or games often come loaded with malware.

Most users don?t have antivirus because the trial period has expired, the software is out of date or it was disabled by malware. Some may also not realize the importance of antivirus so they don?t install it in the first place.

?An antivirus or antimalware product that offers real-time protection is one of the most crucial defenses a computer user has against these and other malware distribution tactics,? Microsoft representatives said. ?Unfortunately, many computers are not protected by real-time antimalware software, either because no such software has been installed, because it has expired, or because it has been disabled intentionally by the user or secretly by malware.?

The Security Intelligence Report also showed Conficker and Autorun worm infections are declining, but web attacks are on the rise. Infections with the two major worms dropped more than a third compared with the figures from 2011.

?In the last quarter of 2012, a person in the enterprise was more likely to encounter attacks through the Web than any of the network worms,? Microsoft senior program manager Holly Stewart told eWEEK.

The paper also showed Blackhole exploits were most common. Six of the top 10 exploits detected in 2012 were components of this exploit kit.

The report analyzed exploits, vulnerabilities, and malware using data from Internet services and over 600 million computers worldwide.

source

[FiB3R]

Leave my keygens alone. You know they are safe, stop flagging them ffs.

[NEVER85]

Wow, computers with no antivirus software are more likely to get malware than those with it?

[Azusa]

What's next "girls 5 X more likely to get pregnant without contraceptive" ?

[Yochanan]

Humans with no clothes are five times more likely to be cold than people with clothes, according to reports.

[Hum]

I don't believe it. :p

[peacemf]

only 5 times?

shouldnt it be more like 100 times more? or higher?

5 times seems small

[techbeck]

......

[Growled Member]

This news is a complete shock ro everyone.

[The Evil Overlord]

too tired to come up with a witty reply, so just pretend that I did

[Jack 0Neill]

It depends more upon the computer user's knowledge than whether or not they run an av.

[thugilex]

Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

Thanks MS, never would of thought about that before :huh:

[n_K]

*boots up BeOS VM without antivirus*.

Oh, once again no viruses!

[Arachno 1D]

the company found malicious e-mail attachments on almost 3 million computers and detected 7 million Keygens

The first is avoidable by other means i.e. using something like Mailwasher pro,using the online email service prior to downloading locally or in most cases a modicum of common sense will do,the later is not even a virus just scaremongering so shouldn't even be in the comment.