Microsoft has been gathering information about malware infection rates on Windows PCs for some time now, thanks to data from its Microsoft Security Essentials program as well as Windows Defender for Windows 8. This week, the company released the malware encounter and infection rates for 2013, including the top 10 countries for both sets of info.
In a blog post, Microsoft stated that the worldwide average malware encounter rate for 2013 was 21.44 percent, with the country of Pakistan on top with 55.22 percent. The numbers only showed the malware infection rate for the fourth quarter of 2013, with the worldwide average at 17.8 PCs cleaned per 1,000 and the country of Tunisia on top at 49.5.
In all 10 countries with the highest malware encounter and infection rates, Microsoft says that the Rotbrow trojan family was a major threat. The blog states, "Researchers have observed Rotbrow installing browser add-ons and other malware. It is commonly packaged with malware used to alter browsing behavior and monetize ads." Brantall, Ramnit, Autorun, Sality, Gamarue and CplLnk were also detected in eight out of the top 10 malware countries.
As usual, most PC users can avoid having their machine infected by taking a number of common sense steps, including updating all of their software to their latest versions, keeping antivirus definitions up to date and not clicking on links or files from unknown sources.
Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft