Microsoft Claims Victory Over Autorun Malware
Microsoft Claims Victory Over Autorun Malware
Posted 06/17/2011 at 11:10am
| by Brad Chacos
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The dark corners of shady Internet bars just became a whole lot safer thanks to Microsoft. The boys and girls in Redmond noticed a disturbing trend towards the end of 2010; the rate of infection due to malware spread via Autorun was skyrocketing. Rather than shrugging their shoulders and telling Symantec to deal with it, the company released an update in February that disabled most Autorun functions on Windows PCs. Four months later, the results are in – malware authors looking to slip your computer a mickey via infected flash drives had better start looking at Linux instead.
Microsoft gauged its success by looking at the number of computers infected by common Autonrun-spread virus families like Taterf, Rimecud, Conficker, and Autorun. They compared the number of infections reported in January, the month before the update took effect, against the number of infections reported in May. The results are astonishing – XP computers saw 59 percent fewer Autorun virus infections, and the malware rate on Vista machines dropped a full 74 percent! Computers running Vista SP2 saw the most benefits, with an 82 percent decrease in infections since January.
Microsoft's blog post showed an interesting side effect: even operating systems that didn't receive the update, like Windows 7 (which already blocked Autorun) and Windows XP SP2 (which is no longer supported), saw a reduced number of infections. Could malware authors be dropping Autorun attacks out of their general arsenal as it becomes more and more difficult to break into the treasure chest of Windows users?
Image credit: Microsoft
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Silencer
June 18, 2011 at 6:00am
"Microsoft Claims Victory Over Autorun Malware"...
By shutting it off. And it's still not even 100%. Not exactly 'impressive', but welcome news, nonetheless.
"Could malware authors be dropping Autorun attacks out of their general arsenal as it becomes more and more difficult to break into the treasure chest of Windows users?"...
Everybody looks for an(/a) ROI! I hear Apple's looking for virus writers lately! ;O)
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/mac_defender_bites_back_8_hours_after_apple_update
LOL! "Microsoft Claims Victory", LOL again! Whatever! Thanks for the articles!
j814wong
June 18, 2011 at 8:56am
As many people have said, they should of been doing this earlier. Microsoft can't exactly claim victory. Many people have been pushing to do this a long time. Microsoft only decided to listen to them now....
Frank N Beenes
June 17, 2011 at 3:03pm
I noticed Win98 wasnt on the list. Is that because in Win98 you could easily turn off Autorun yourself in device manager? LOL Microsuck actually made a chart showing how stupid they are and are now patting themselves on the back trying to spin it. They are the worst. Clearly the worst ever.
winmaster
June 17, 2011 at 5:08pm
In XP (never used Vista) it was still possible to turn off autorun, however it was turned on by default and most users wouldn't dig that far into the settings. This update (which was downloadable via the Microsoft Download Center for a long time, it just was published to Windows Update recently) removed the autorun feature entirely for USB devices.
Windows 98 probably wasn't on the list because its ancient.
j814wong
June 17, 2011 at 2:48pm
If they turn Linux, Linux distros will solve it much more quickly then Microsoft ever did. Anyway, hackers will find a way on Windows.
MrBlueCheese
June 19, 2011 at 1:35pm
Not likely, as the service pack wasn't out when they first collected the numbers.
Nastyman
June 17, 2011 at 11:34am
Windows XP SP2 (which is no longer supported), saw a reduced number of infections.
Not true, it is supported untill 2014.
Nasty
winmaster
June 17, 2011 at 5:04pm
Only XP SP3 is supported until 2014. Support for XP SP2 ended last year.
Brad Chacos
June 17, 2011 at 12:49pm
Hi Nasty,
Maybe Microsoft got it wrong, then? I just copied this from the blog post about the Autorun improvements: "and neither did Windows XP SP 2 (it's out of support, so it didn't get the update)."
ttre208
June 17, 2011 at 1:35pm
I believe the reason he said that Windows XP SP2 is out of support is because of SP3? This is only a gues on my part but that seems like it should be the reason.
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