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Microsoft Links Malware Rates To Pirated Windows
CWmike writes "Microsoft said today that computers in countries with high rates of software piracy are more likely to be infected because users are leery of applying security patches. 'There is a direct correlation between piracy and the malware infection rate,' said Jeff Williams, head manager of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center. Highlighting research that showed worms to be the most prevalent computer security problem today, Williams said the link between PC infection rates and piracy is due to the hesitancy of users of pirated software to use Windows Update. China's piracy rate is more than four times that of the US, but the use of Windows Update in China is significantly below that in this country. Same for Brazil and France. But Microsoft's own data doesn't always support William's contention that piracy, and the hesitancy to use Windows Update, leads to more infected PCs. China, for example, boasted a malware infection rate — as defined by the number of computers cleaned for each 1,000 executions of the MSRT — of just 6.7 per thousand, significantly below the global average of 8.7 or the US's rate of 8.2. France's infection rate of 7.9 in the first half of 2009 was also below the worldwide average."
Including Windows Genuine Validation is the likely culprit for this.
Have security patches installed in redistributed form, they are available from MS or even torrent sites
Am I the only one who sees the problem here? Why do you think all those machines are infected with malware in the first place? :-D
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Williams said the link between PC infection rates and piracy is due to the hesitancy of users of pirated software to use Windows Update.
Make Windows free.
The fact that there's a "Great (Fire)Wall" separating the Chinese from the rest of the internet? Chinese culture being less individualistic may simply not produce as much malware, and since most citizens are restricted to their own countrymen, there's a bias. That such a sampling bias exists should disqualify it from being included among the other countries, or at least warrant further research before lumping it in there.
I know a guy that has Nod32 antivirus installed.
Unfortunately for him, he doesn't seem to understand how to activate it. Every year he buys a new code, and loses it, without activating. It's now about 900 days since his subscription ended.
I took pitty and installed avast, but he doesn't know what the little A is, or even care, because he has Nod32 (which a friend recommended), and he thinks he's protected.
I agree that uneducated users are the issue.
When you purposely push out "security patches" that only disable copies of Windows that are pirated, then yes, they are leery of using them, and rightly so
Don't forget the legit copies they disable. Any of those OEM keys that shady computer repair shops have gotten their hands on.
Microsoft also disabled my legit key. Apparently if you activate Windows on 4 different motherboards with 3 different CPUs, 4 different types of memory, 3 different GPUs, 6 different HDD setups, from 3 different IPs/ISPs, they find it suspicious and refuse to give you a new key.
Of course, what actually happened was my PSU blew up my old board. It wasn't good for overclocking, so I got a different one. Then the new PSU blew up the new board(bad luck - never going Antec again) and some memory. After getting it fixed, I sold my CPU and upgraded that and my GPU. I was running out of space, so I also got an HDD upgrade. Then later I moved most of them over to a NAS. Eventually I wanted to upgrade again, so I gave a family member my old PC(after wiping Windows and installing Ubuntu, *gasp*) and tried to reactivate again on a new board with a new CPU + GPU + RAM + more HDDs.
Microsoft found it suspicious - too suspicious - and yet I'm in the right, because my XP key was only in use on a single machine. I believe a contributing factor was the ISP switching, and my IP geolocation resolving incorrectly. For a while it resolved to Ontario, then Alberta, then BC. Originally I could even watch Hulu (and I'm Canadian), so I know the geolocation software failed pretty badly.
Right now I'm using XP, but it's not the license key I originally bought. There's no way I'm letting a company force me to pay twice! Everyone I know buys a single license and uses it on every computer in their home, but here I am doing it the right way, and they screw me! Never again!