Microsoft says: One in 14 Downloads Is Malicious

[William Parcher]

Microsoft: One in 14 Downloads Is Malicious

The next time a website says to download new software to view a movie or fix a problem, think twice. There's a pretty good chance that the program is malicious.

In fact, about one out of every 14 programs downloaded by Windows users turns out to be malicious, Microsoft said Tuesday. And even though Microsoft has a feature in its Internet Explorer browser designed to steer users away from unknown and potentially untrustworthy software, about 5 percent of users ignore the warnings and download malicious Trojan horse programs anyway.

 

[GeeMack]

Microsoft: One in 14 Downloads Is Malicious

So does that represent the proportion of malicious stuff out there, or the proportion of the dumbest, most gullible, most easily duped people who download stuff? Given the quantity of folks who believe in gods, psychics, bigfoot, UFOliens, etc., it's not surprising that 7% of Internet users can be fooled into downloading just about anything.

 

[ehcks]

Where do people go to find these malicious downloads?

I download just about anything if it sounds like something I want and I haven't pinged my anti-virus or anti-malware in over a year.

 

[William Parcher]

I don't know why the percentage is relatively high. Maybe it's because there are always enormous numbers of downloads in risky genres like porn, gaming, gambling, free music, free movies, free whatever, bootleg, email spam, etc.

 

[Dancing David]

Where do people go to find these malicious downloads?

Last two weeks:

Edited by Darat: 

Link removed - not sure what it links to!

which is a gamevance loader
and then there is always:

Edited by Darat: 

Link removed - not sure what it links to!

the infamous CoolWebSearch loader

In the last year I have also dealt with

Edited by Darat: 

Link removed - not sure what it links to!

andother trojan loader

then there are the screen saver, free movies, free coupons stuff, and those are all just straight up trojans, before you get into the QT, Flash and Java malware.

I download just about anything if it sounds like something I want and I haven't pinged my anti-virus or anti-malware in over a year.

Well your average user know more about how their car works than the average computer user.

You would be suprised how many people don't have AV software.

 

[Dancing David]

I don't know why the percentage is relatively high. Maybe it's because there are always enormous numbers of downloads in risky genres like porn, gaming, gambling, free music, free movies, free whatever, bootleg, email spam, etc.

I think part of it too is going to depend upon what the 'malicious' part means, I personally think that a lot of Yahoo toolbar stuff is 'bad for your machine', as well as the whole Ask adware campaign.

Now that is a pretty broad defintion the standard set is a little more narrow.

And Microsoft is of course just touting their product IE8 and advertising IE9

 

[Aepervius]

A few of the stuff their "malware" program found malicious on my computer were trainer I programmed with a memory hook to change value in a game.

make of that what you want, but if they use the result of their malware program for the study, it is flawed.

 

[Dancing David]

Well here is the post that yahoo is talking about:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/05/17/smartscreen-174-application-reputation-in-ie9.aspx

It is hard to see in this ad from MS where the 1 in 14 comes from.

there is this MS ad:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/12/14/enhanced-protection-with-ie9-s-smartscreen-filter.aspx

My guess it come from here is teh fisr MS commercial

"IE blocks between 2 and 5 million attacks a day for IE8 and IE9 customers. Since the release of IE8, SmartScreen has blocked more than 1.5 billion attempted malware attacks."

and they took the number of downloads vs. the number blocked.

Now what IE8 blocks and what IE9 blocks?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/smartscreen-filter-frequently-asked-questions

Aepervius:

Which MS program dinged your trainer?

 

[Babbylonian]

What if all 14 downloads are from Microsoft?

Breaking news: Microsoft distributes malicious downloads!

 

[BenBurch]

What if all 14 downloads are from Microsoft?

Breaking news: Microsoft distributes malicious downloads!

Called simply "Windows."

 

[Aepervius]

Aepervius:

Which MS program dinged your trainer?

The program from security essential.

 

[HoverBoarder]

The next time a website says to download new software to view a movie or fix a problem, think twice. There's a pretty good chance that the program is malicious.

In fact, about one out of every 14 programs downloaded by Windows users turns out to be malicious, Microsoft said Tuesday. And even though Microsoft has a feature in its Internet Explorer browser designed to steer users away from unknown and potentially untrustworthy software, about 5 percent of users ignore the warnings and download malicious Trojan horse programs anyway.

Instead of a blanket statement, it would be nice if they had a database of actual malicious software and a warning against it.

You get a warning for just about everything you download. Crying wolf and then getting upset when people don't follow you seems to be a pretty poor strategy...

 

[Dancing David]

The program from security essential.

That makes sense , i am sure it was heuristics.

 

[Dancing David]

Instead of a blanket statement, it would be nice if they had a database of actual malicious software and a warning against it.

You get a warning for just about everything you download. Crying wolf and then getting upset when people don't follow you seems to be a pretty poor strategy...

And this is relevant to the MS advertising/press release, how?

Who gives a warning for every download?

 

[Sam.I.Am]

Who gives a warning for every download?

My browser does because I chose to not check the box to "Hide the warning next time". Most people seem to think that it's an annoyance and banish the warning pop up from ever appearing again. I've stopped a few errant clicks from screwing myself over because of it.

 

[Bilbo]

You would be suprised how many people don't have AV software.

No, no I wouldn't. I am surprised at how long people will put up with this Windoze scam. I really wonder why, why does the herd mentality apply to computers too. I mean, they sell you a product that has a gaping hole in the wall, and then other companies try and sell you a "patch" for that hole in your wall, and other companies sell repair kits...some just sell curtains that you can hang over that hole and forget about it.

There is another company giving away perfectly good FREE homes!

 

[BenBurch]

Much as I would like to think that in a few years, 90% of all personal computers will be running Vole Victorious, I can't see it really happening.

 

[MG1962]

A person I know downloaded Windows9 - then warned me it had a virus

 

[Fishstick]

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=688&pictureid=4534[/qimg]

No, no I wouldn't. I am surprised at how long people will put up with this Windoze scam. I really wonder why, why does the herd mentality apply to computers too. I mean, they sell you a product that has a gaping hole in the wall, and then other companies try and sell you a "patch" for that hole in your wall, and other companies sell repair kits...some just sell curtains that you can hang over that hole and forget about it.

There is another company giving away perfectly good FREE homes!

Everyone switch to an OS where developers can't decide on which shell to use!

 

[psionl0]

Everyone switch to an OS where developers can't decide on which shell to use!

That's a minus?