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Malware stays on machines for years
In another warning to PC users and IT security managers, new research from security vendor Trend Micro has found that malware lingers on devices much longer than previously thought - for months and sometimes years.
Previous estimates have said the average compromised machine remains infected for around six weeks, but now Trend is saying that many computers are infected or repeatedly infected for more than two years, with a median infection length of 300 days for some countries.
The security vendor analysed around 100 million compromised IPs and found that 80 per cent of all compromised machines have been infected for more than a month - with at least a quarter of these business computers.
With malware becoming increasingly difficult to locate and remove, the message is clear for firms - ensure your systems are running comprehensive scanning and remediation tools alongside any anti-malware technology. Deflecting attacks is only part of the battle.
September 15, 2009 | Permalink
There is a very easy way for Microsoft to prevent malware and virus attacks but due to the way the operating system works it makes it difficult to remove. If windows was installed on firmware (solid state drive if you must) and only Microsoft and the user had keys to access this then restoring a compromised system would be as easy as pushing a button. The problem is most software relies on the registry which is integrated with Windows which prevents this from being done. If Microsoft changed this so that software installed in it's own folder rather than partly installing in Windows then all the malware problems would stop as restoring a system would take minutes and not hours.
Similarly if a program stopped functioning then merely re-installing it would be easy as it would not be integrated with the operating system.
Why do we put up with the registry? It is so problematic that it should be removed.
Lastly, why does Windows not automatically backup all the files in "My Documents" - it could easily be done to an internal / external drive?
Posted by :Alan Robertson | September 17, 2009 2:56 PM
Hi..
I am using Microsoft windows XP since 2005, and since I have not updated my Antivirus database but my PC still working very much.
Posted by :disque dur externe multimedia | September 30, 2009 5:24 AM