Almost 50% of malware infections are user initiated

According to the latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report released very recently, 45% of all malware infections are propagated per medium of social engineering techniques. These are the threats which trick users into running a malicious program and rely heavily on user interaction.

Not far behind is malware inflicted by maliciously taking advantage of the Windows Autorun feature. Autorun abuse weighs in at 43%. Somewhat surprisingly, the report states that a mere 6% of all malware is propagated by exploiting software vulnerabilities. It goes on to say that 90% of exploit attacks targeted vulnerabilities which were at least 365 days old and where a security update was readily available from the affected vendor – with less than 1% of all attacks targeting zero day vulnerabilities.

The remaining 6% is attributed to “other methods”, the most prominent being attacks on weak passwords plus traditional virus attacks. Whether you agree with the report’s findings or take them with a grain of salt, the statistics do tend to confirm the advice most often proffered by security experts – a large proportion of malware attacks can indeed be thwarted by user habits, per medium of a heightened awareness and a little more attention to detail.

Download the full report HERE (924KB PDF)

Scroll to Top

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER?

Get great content like this delivered to your inbox!

It's free, convenient, and delivered right to your inbox! We do not spam and we will not share your address. Period!