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View Full Version : Microsoft's Malware Report: 60 Percent of PCs Infected


dbarrow
06-14-2006, 10:19 AM
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/51076.html

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Latest News about Microsoft on Monday revealed the results of a 15-month test of its Malicious Software Removal Tool. The utility that seeks out and destroys malware reported malicious programs, or bots, on six out of 10 Windows computers it examined. ...
..."The malware environment out there is worse than most people even dream of," Mike Murray, director of vulnerability research for nCircle, told TechNewsWorld. "This report underscores the need for people to understand their security and the need for vendors to work towards security as a goal of their product." ...
...Microsoft scanned 5.7 million consumer and small business PCs on which its Malicious Software Removal Tool was installed between January 2005 and March 2006. The results reveal that about 20 percent of the participating PCs had been cleaned, then re-infected, typically with a different kind of bot.

In addition, about 35 percent of the bots were installed after victims opened e-mail or IM attachments, or downloaded data files from peer-to-peer networks. The majority of the remaining bots spread without any required action by the victim.

At least one "backdoor Trojan," a malicious computer code secretly installed onto PCs, was discovered on 3.5 million computers. That's 62 percent. Most of the backdoor Trojans functioned as bots communicating over a private messaging channel to a remote attacker. ...

Terry Hanushek
06-14-2006, 01:14 PM
Doug

...Microsoft scanned 5.7 million consumer and small business PCs on which its Malicious Software Removal Tool was installed between January 2005 and March 2006. The results reveal that about 20 percent of the participating PCs had been cleaned, then re-infected, typically with a different kind of bot.
I have always been intrigued by the M$ Malicious Software Removal Tool. It gets downloaded every month with their critical updates yet I have never seen any evidence of it on my computers. Allegedly it scans your computer and removes an expanding list of malware threats. I have never received any notification or report from this process. Is my machine clean so that there is nothing to report ..or.. does it only report to its masters in Redmond?

Has anyone ever received a notice or report that the Malicious Software Removal Tool has found (or not found) anything on your machine?

Is this the ultimate example of stealth software?

Just wondering .....

Terry

PeteF
06-14-2006, 02:36 PM
I have always been intrigued by the M$ Malicious Software Removal Tool. It gets downloaded every month with their critical updates yet I have never seen any evidence of it on my computers.

Excellent question, Terry!
I've been wondering the same thing, so I just
looked it up and here's what I found.

Open IE and go to this page...
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
Here you will find an explanation of the tool and have opportunity to
read the user agreement and run the tool from the web.

I was able to read the ageement which basically says they will scan
and clean your PC and a report will be send to them indicating the
results. Also, if it screws up your PC you can only claim max damages
of $5. Pretty funny.

I tried to run the tool from online but it won't run, probably due to
my IE security settings. So next it offers an option to download
the tool. I DL'd the 2.5mb executable and ran the scan locally.
It's nothing fancy, it just does it's scan and reports if it found
or fixes anything. I believe what we are seeing when we do the
Windows Updates and see.. Malicious Software Removal Tool, are
just the definition files for the tool.

I'm running AVG Free, Spybot & Adaware here and the MS Malicious
Software Removal Tool didn't detect anything new.

MS Malicious Software Removal Tool mystery solved!;)
Thanks for asking.

---pete---

Pi rules
06-14-2006, 09:28 PM
I've never seen it find anything on a computer ever. Thanks for the info. on the tool, Pete.

mylanta
06-17-2006, 11:22 PM
It warned me one time I needed to update Ms Ofice 2003 which I always forget is onboard because I seldom use the thing.