____/ Richard Rasker on Saturday 22 December 2007 12:33 : \____
> SW wrote:
>
>> Richard Rasker wrote:
>>>
>>> Oh, but he's right, you know. Approximately half of all Windows
>>> machines worldwide are infected with viruses and/or other malware.
>>
>>
>> Half of 500,000,000 Windows machines you claim? Hmmmm, let's see some
>> reliable stats to support your claim. Any large anti-virus provider will
>> suffice.
>
> No, half of 1 billion machines, so 500 million Windows machines with at
> least one kind of malware. And it seems my estimate was actually on the low
> side:
>
> http://www.securitycurve.com/blog/archives/000472.html
>
> "Depending on whose estimates we use, anywhere from 50 to 70 percent of all
> PC's are infected with some kind of malware,"
>
> http://www.itsecuritysource.com/specialreport15.php
>
> "A 2005 Forrester Research survey of IT decision-makers found that 40
> percent of respondents didn’t know how many systems in their organization
> were infected with spyware. Those who could measure the number of systems
> infected with spyware found that about 20 percent of systems were
> infected, and the number is growing rapidly."
>
> Note that this is about corporate machines, in 2005. Infection rates of
> consumer PC's are way higher. In my own experience, the vast majority (well
> over 75%) of home computers are infected with at least one thing or
> another. Homes with kids have an almost 100% infection rate.
>
> "IDC estimates that 67 percent of all computers have some form of
> spyware. "
>
>
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/general/0,295582,sid14_gci1090252,00.html
>
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1085176,00.html?spywarequiz
>
> "A majority of corporate and consumer PCs are infested with spyware and
> it's quickly becoming the top preoccupation of IT professionals. That's
> the gist of a new report from Webroot Software, which found various forms
> of spyware in 87% of the machines it scanned in the first quarter of 2005.
>
> ...
>
> The firm's findings -- unveiled Tuesday in its first quarterly State of
> Spyware Report -- are similar to other studies in recent months. The
> National Cyber Security Alliance has found that 80% of all computers are
> infected, for example. Atlanta-based ISP Earthlink has said an estimated
> 90% of PCs are infected, and Dell Inc. has said spyware accounts for 12%
> of all PC help desk calls.
>
> ...
>
> Excluding cookies, the other forms of spyware were present in more than
> 55% of corporate PCs."
>
> So, malware is "becoming the top preoccupation of IT professionals",
> and "spyware accounts for 12% of all help desk calls". Gosh, howcome these
> very significant extra costs are never mentioned in any TCO studies? And
> all this is just the cost of dealing with the actual malware; it doesn't
> even start to take into account the damage caused by the malware itself, in
> terms of spam, theft, and other criminal activity, sluggish machines,
> frustrated users and lots more.
> Even Microsoft is urging people to migrate to Vista by implicitly admitting
> that the security of previous Windows versions sucks:
>
>
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9831567-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
>
>
> And to think that there are still blind idiots here who claim that Windows
> malware isn't all that much of a problem.
>
> Richard Rasker
A flawed AV software (mind subject line) gives the illusion that all is well.
I've had people complaining that I disconnected them because "the AV said that
their computer was clean". Obviously, it's akin to the kingdom of "mirror,
mirror on the wall".
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Windows XP: Dude, where's my RAM?
http://Schestowitz.com | Free as in Free Beer | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Load average (/proc/loadavg): 1.67 1.73 1.56 1/145 5517
http://iuron.com - semantic search engine project initiative
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