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US Reigns As Most Bot-Infected Country
Trailrunner7 writes "The US has by far the highest number of bot-infected computers of any country in the world, with nearly four times as many infected PCs as the country in second place, Brazil, according to a new report by Microsoft. The quarterly report on malicious software and Internet attacks shows that while some of the major botnets have been curtailed in recent months, the networks of infected PCs still represent a huge threat."
But after a short glance I still couldn't see if this is a "per computer" basis for the country or simply a "total pwned" basis.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
How many computers total are in the US compared to other countries of the world?
Simple counts don't cut it in the real world of statistics.
I bet 100% of Canadian computers could be infected and we still might not beat out the US. Considering the Population of California alone is greater than our national population (or at least it was last time I checked).
This report is not a good measure of anything. It only counts botnets cleaned by Microsoft's program, and it doesn't talk about infections per capita. It measures nothing, and is pretty close to useless. Yay. Okay, that's not totally fair - there is useful information in it. But the article has very little of that information, and the summary has none of it. Now, yay.
The reason more Americans are infected is because of the sheer amount of computers we have. As others have noted, it's really the percentage per 1000 that are infected that really count. I would bet that most people nowadays have more than one PC in their home, so the statistics are skewed if no one is playing by the same rules.
So can someone explain why this is news? Sounds more like it reflects the number of computers in the country!
You know, you trolls are starting to piss me off. You know here in the USA we got TONS of other races yet all you say is "nigger nigger nigger" and "spic spic spic" and that is....well it just ain't fair! I mean sure, you throw in the occasional Jew, but what about us Micks? I haven't heard a decent Irish insult in ages! And where is the Italian and Native American jokes? This used to be a site with top notch trolls, trolls that really went that extra mile. THREE PAGE ass rape trolls written in the style of a Harlequin romance, or HUGE vulgar ASCII layouts that took real artistic ability. Now you just say "nigger" and think you have written a quality troll, it is just sad I tell ya. I'm sure the great trolls are hanging their heads under their bridges in shame.
As for TFA, before we get all those lame "ban windblowz LOL!" lame bits, as a PC repair guy that actually has to deal with these on a day to day basis? The OS is fine, has been since XP Sp2 as a matter of fact, it is the dumb as shit users that ruin everything! I don't know how many times I tell them "don't just download and run random shit from the Internet" or "Don't go opening email attachments or clicking links sent to you by people you don't even know" but do they listen? hell no! At least with Vista and 7 the new security features help somewhat to protect the OS from the PEBKAC, but I can tell you the two biggest sources of infection are 1.-people purposely installing malware because it came with some "free app" they wanted or a web page said "ZOMG! you got teh Viruzz" even though they have a working AV (which I swear I have seen them turn off because some app they are trying to install told them to) and 2.- Adobe Reader bullshit.
Linux or any other FLOSS would NOT magically fix that kind of stupid my friends, Lord I wish it would but it simply won't. These same folks if you stuck them on Linux would happily pass their root password to any and every app without a second thought, they simply don't give ANY thought at all. You'd think I'd be happy about this, but it makes me feel like the cave painter in "History of the World: Part 1" who has his masterpiece pissed on. I get enough work from referrals I'm actually very happy when someone follow basic best practices and doesn't need to bring me their machine all the time. But as TFA shows, for every 1 of those there are 10,000 that would give you their password for a cookie. it is just fricking sad man, just fricking sad.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Too bad, as a species, we don't seem capable of this kind of synchronization.
Actually as a species we are quite capable of synchronisation, the problem is people only synchronise of trivial bullshit EG: sporting events.