Subscribe
About

One in four PCs run unprotected

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 19 Apr 2013
Surfing the Internet without up-to-date anti-virus is like leaving your front door open to criminals, says Microsoft SA.
Surfing the Internet without up-to-date anti-virus is like leaving your front door open to criminals, says Microsoft SA.

One in every four computers in SA is running unprotected, without up-to-date real-time anti-virus or anti-malware protection - and without this vital protection layer, these systems are five times more likely to be infected with malware.

This was one of the key findings of Microsoft's Security Intelligence Report volume 14 (SIRv14), which was released this week at the company's TechEd 2013 conference, in Durban. According to the report, network worms are on the decline and Web-based attacks have risen to become the number one threat facing enterprises today.

The proportion of Autorun threats reported by enterprise computers decreased by 37% from 2011 to 2012 - but seven out of the top 10 threats affecting enterprises were associated with malicious or compromised Web sites, said Dr Khomotso Kganyago, chief adviser at Microsoft SA.

The report found enterprises were more likely to encounter the iFrame redirection technique than any other malware family tracked in Q4 2012. One specific iFrame redirection family, called IframeRef, increased fivefold in the fourth quarter of 2012, to become the number one malicious technique encountered by enterprises worldwide. IframeRef was detected nearly 3.3 million times in the fourth quarter of 2012.

"People intuitively understand the importance of locking their front door to prevent their homes from being broken into. Computer security is no different. Surfing the Internet without up-to-date anti-virus is like leaving your front door open to criminals," said Kganyago.

SIRv14 explains some of the most prevalent threats facing consumers online:

Think before you click: Microsoft detected and removed malicious e-mail attachments from almost three million computers in the fourth quarter of 2012. People encounter this type of threat when opening documents, such as a PDF or Word document, that have been maliciously crafted and sent to them in an e-mail. Anti-virus can help to prevent infection from this type of attack.

Bargain hunters beware: Keygen, a threat family commonly bundled with malware, was detected almost seven million times in the fourth quarter of 2012. People seeking free or discounted software, movies or games online increase the risk of encountering this type of threat. Anti-virus can help to protect against this.

Learn more

For more in-depth discussions on security and cyber crime, be sure to attend the ITWeb Security Summit, to be held from 7 to 9 May, at the Sandton Convention Centre. In particular, keynote speaker Misha Glenny will discuss the struggle for the Internet, with emphasis on Web control, crime, commercial espionage, spying and warfare. For more information and to book your place at the event, click here.

In SA, SIRv14 showed that, despite the benefits of anti-virus, many people do not realise they are unprotected. There are a number of reasons that four out of 10 computers are unprotected, said Kganyago: a trial period has expired or the software is out of date; the anti-virus software was disabled by the bad guys; and people may not realise the importance of anti-virus, so they do not install it.

To find out if they are using valid and up-to-date anti-virus, Microsoft recommends that people go to their system control panel to check their computer's security settings. If they do not have anti-virus installed, they can download it from a trusted vendor. If you have Windows 8, then Microsoft's anti-virus is already built into the system.

"Regardless of whether you use a free or paid for solution, the importance of anti-virus cannot be overstated," said Kganyago. "By taking the proper measures to protect your computer, including the most basic step of installing anti-virus, people can dramatically reduce their risk of becoming a victim."

Microsoft releases the SIR twice a year to inform the public about the most prevalent global threats so they can protect themselves and their organisations. SIRv14 includes from the second half of 2012 and contains threat intelligence from over a billion computers worldwide.

The full Security Intelligence Report, volume 14, is available for free and can be downloaded here. More information can also be found on the Microsoft Security Blog and Microsoft Security Newsroom.

Share