In the six or seven years that we have been publishing the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) I have seen many trends emerge over time. The threat landscape is constantly changing as attackers try to find methods that will help them compromise the systems they target. For several years viruses...

Systems that host and distribute malware are located all over the world. These systems have typically been compromised and are being used for illicit purposes unbeknownst to the administrators of the systems. These compromised machines can be personal computers located in homes and small businesses,...

The RSA Conference in San Francisco is over for another year. I want to thank all those conference attendees that attended one of the many activities Microsoft had going on during the week or took time to visit our booth. Special thanks to those conference attendees that attended the breakout session...

This morning, Adrienne Hall, General Manager for Trustworthy Computing delivered a keynote speech at RSA Europe and announced the availability of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report volume 13 (SIRv13). It’s hard to believe that it’s been over six years since we published the first...

In the first two parts of this series on the threat landscape in the Middle East ( Part 1 , Part 2 ) I focused on the threats in Qatar, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority (West Bank and Gaza Strip). In this final part of the series I focus on Israel and Saudi Arabia. The data in this article comes...

In the first part of this series on the threat landscape in the Middle East I focused on the threats in Qatar, the location with the largest improvement in malware infection rates in the region. In this part of the series I focus on the Palestinian Authority and Iraq, the two locations with the highest...

In the first three parts of this series on the threat landscape in Asia and Oceania I examined threats in Vietnam and India (highest malware infection rates in the region), Japan and Korea (very interesting juxtaposition), and Malaysia and Singapore (malware infection rates trending lower). This final...

For years I have heard talk in the industry that much of the counterfeit software available on the Internet was preloaded with malware. How much of the counterfeit software available is preloaded with malware? What type of malware is preloaded on these systems and what does it allow the attackers to...

In part 1 and part 2 of this series on the threat landscape in Asia and Oceania I focused on Vietnam, India, Korea and Japan. In this third part of the series, I’m focusing on Malaysia and Singapore. I have visited both of these countries in the past to discuss threats in these locations with...

In part 1 of this series on the threat landscape in Asia and Oceania I focused on Vietnam and India – the two locations with the highest malware infection rates in the region. In this part of the series, I’m focusing on Korea and Japan. Historically Korea has had one of the most active threat...

Recently I wrote about the threat landscape in the European Union ( part 1 , 2 , 3 ) and Africa . This series of articles is focused on threats in select locations in Asia (Vietnam, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan) and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). I am focusing on these locations...

Recently I wrote a three part series of articles ( part 1 , part 2 , part 3 ) on the evolving threat landscape in the European Union. As I wrote in these articles, there has been a steep rise in the malware infection rates in some European countries that typically have some of the lowest malware infection...

According to data we recently published in the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report volume 12 (SIRv12), drive-by download attacks continue to be a favorite tactic used by many attackers attempting to compromise large numbers of systems around the world. I have written about drive-by download attacks...

In part 1 of this series on the threat landscape in the European Union in the second half of 2011, I examined the threats in the location with the highest malware infection rate, Romania. In this segment of the series I will examine what is happening in the EU member states that have seen the biggest...

Recently I spoke at the Microsoft EU Cybersecurity & Digital Crimes Forum 2012 in Brussels. I provided an in-depth briefing on some of the significant shifts in threat landscape in the EU during the second half of 2011. I will be sharing some of the key findings of this analysis in a short series...

Okay, so there are about a million social techniques being used in email to get your attention and entice you to click on some bad link, but since this one purports to be from Microsoft, I thought I’d post a quick warning and do a bit of digging, since it is the first of these that I’ve gotten and I...

Since releasing the new Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Volume 12 (SIRv12) a few weeks ago, one of the top questions I have been asked is about the new malware infection rate data for Windows operating systems. Figure 1: Infection rate (CCM) by operating system and service pack in the fourth...

Scareware, also known as fake anti-virus software, has become one of the most common methods computer hackers use to swindle your money. If you have had a security alert icon pop up on your computer, you may have been the victim of scareware. In a recent TV interview , I discuss how scareware programs...

Today we released the latest volume of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) containing a large body of new data and analysis on the threat landscape. This volume of the SIR includes: Latest industry vulnerability disclosure trends and analysis Latest data and analysis of global vulnerability...

This post continue my analysis of industry vulnerability disclosures started in part 4 last week and is part of an ongoing series of posts based upon Tim Rains and my recent special edition Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) called “ The evolution of malware and the threat landscape – a ten...

In the first three parts of this series ( part 1 , part 2 , part 3 ), Tim Rains explored some of the ways that the threat landscape (with a focus on malware) has evolved over the past decade and introduced a new special edition Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) called “ The evolution of malware...

Every country/region of the world has a threat landscape that is characterized by the strategies and tactics that malicious actors use to victimize technology users. Korea has a threat landscape that is characterized by a mix of global threats as well as threats that are targeting users in Korea specifically...