"The AVAST Virus Lab has identified un-patched and often pirated versions of Windows XP as the main vector for rootkits infections. Data from a six-month study catalogued over 630,000 samples and found that 74 per cent of infections originated from Windows XP machines, compared to 17 per cent for Vista and only 12 per cent from Windows 7 machines. While Windows XP may be old, it is still the most common operating system around the globe with 49 per cent of Avast! antivirus users having it on their computers compared to the 38 per cent with Windows 7 and the 13 per cent with Vista."

"The U.S. 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." | more

Warning you have a virus that robs your identity, steals your bank account passwords and sleeps with your wife! It's to bad you are cheap and only use our free anti-virus software.

In a positive spin Intel is diversifying their business and thinking outside the chip... So far however I'm not impressed with the buyout of McAfee.

At least 100,000 computers in the U.K. are infected with the Zeus malware, an advanced piece of spying software that is regularly defeating most antivirus software suites, according security vendor Trusteer.

Researchers at Trusteer managed to analyze a server used to collect details from the hacked PCs, which likely became infected by visiting Web sites engineered to attack computers and install Zeus, said Mickey Boodaei, Trusteer's CEO.

Researchers say they've devised a way to bypass protections built in to dozens of the most popular desktop anti-virus products, including those offered by McAfee, Trend Micro, AVG, and BitDefender.

The method, developed by software security researchers at matousec.com, works by exploiting the driver hooks the anti-virus programs bury deep inside the Windows operating system. In essence, it works by sending them a sample of benign code that passes their security checks and then, before it's executed, swaps it out with a malicious payload.

A rise in fake antivirus offerings on Web sites around the globe shows that scammers are increasingly turning to social engineering to get malware on computers rather than exploiting holes in software, a Google study to be released on Tuesday indicates.

Fake antivirus--false pop-up warnings designed to scare money out of computer users--represents 15 percent of all malware that Google detects on Web sites, according to 13-month analysis the company conducted between January 2009 and February 2010.