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Rich Countries Suffer Less Malware, Says Microsoft Study

Posted by timothy on from the better-treatment-helps dept.

chicksdaddy writes "To paraphrase a quote attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald: 'Rich countries aren't like everyone else. They have less malware.' That's the conclusion of a special Security Intelligence Report from Microsoft, anyway. The special supplement, released on Wednesday, investigated the links between rates of computer infections and a range of national characteristics including the relative wealth of a nation, observance of the rule of law and the rate of software piracy. The conclusion: cyber security (by Microsoft's definition: low rates of malware infection) correlated positively with many characteristics of wealthy nations – high Gross Income Per Capita, higher broadband penetration and investment in R&D and high rates of literacy. It correlated negatively with characteristics common in poorer nations – like demographic instability, political instability and lower levels of education.'"

7 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. You don't say? by Maximalist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Better literacy leads to a better ability to spot the poorly written bogus come-ons that get you infected when you click on them? I just can't believe it.

    1. Re:You don't say? by TWX · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Better literacy leads to a better ability to spot the poorly written bogus come-ons that get you infected when you click on them? I just can't believe it.

      Not from what I've seen...

      Having a techie friend call to fix it when it's broke is what gets most people out of the jam.

      Though with my friends, I charge $60/hr to friends to fix their computers on the side. As a consequence I do maybe two side jobs a year. I don't want to do side work, and when they know that it'll cost probably $120 to get their $500 computer fixed, they do tend to be at least a little more careful.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:You don't say? by Erikderzweite · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Mine have been forcefully switched to Linux. Much easier to support since I've set up ssh reverse tunnel with port forwarding for vnc. So if a PC is online, I can fix it. If not -- there's a custom LiveCD which does the same trick with reverse ssh.

      Oh, and no problems with malware whatsoever.

    3. Re:You don't say? by emho24 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I wouldn't expect my brother to charge me $60 per hour to fix a fucking computer either.

      Maybe not for the first few times, but after a while it just gets freaking old. That's when an hourly rate starts to sound appealing to me. Even family members need to learn and stop making the same stupid mistakes over and over.

      --
      You must gather your party before venturing forth.
  2. Backpackers would know this by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Computers at internet cafes in third-world countries look as scary and diseased as truck stop hookers. One imagines that whoever set up the computers way back when might have been tech savvy, but the owner paid him for his one-time services, then for the next 5-10 years kept the machines running with no updates or virus scans. The staff hired to work there are just babysitting the machines to make sure no one steals them; they have no greater knowledge of how to fix a problem than restarting the computer.

    I use these establishments only to plug my notebook into a ethernet jack, but a non-insignificant amount of times, to ask to use your own computer instead of their infectious, malware-ridden machines evokes suspicion that are you are some kind of hacker terrorist and they want you to leave.

  3. Can Microsoft detect malware? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But how can anything that Microsoft says about malware be trusted when Microsoft's own Security Essentials software has problems detecting malware?

  4. Anti-virus software not updated by mmsimanga · · Score: 4, Informative

    The reason is because anti-virus software on these computers is not updated. Reasons for not updating primarily revolve around how expensive it is to connect to the Internet. I don't live in my home country, Zimbabwe. When I did visit the one time I installed Ubuntu on the home PC because half the time the PC was unusable thanks to malware. I blogged about it here http://www.mahalasoft.co.za/blog/ubuntu-linux-experiment . The next time I visited, Windows XP had be reinstalled on the machine because that is what most of the "technies" knew back home, yes the PC was unusable again.