ID: IRCNE2011071200
Date: 2011-07-31
According to "techworld",The stubborn popularity of Windows XP is offering an easy target for the creators of rootkit malware, according to antivirus company Avast. Three quarters of all rootkits it found in a new study were on XP machines.
Forty-nine percent of Avast’s considerable user base still runs Windows XP, itself an interesting statistic nearly two years after Windows 7 was launched, but it is its obvious vulnerability in the face of advanced rootkits such as TDL-3/4 (aka ‘Alureon’) that offers the clearest reminder of its obsolescence.
In the company’s six-month study of 630,000 infections, not only were a disproportionate 74 percent of all rootkits found on XP PCs, 74 percent of these infections were connected to TDL.
“One issue with Windows XP is the high number of pirated versions, especially as users are often unable to properly update them because the software can’t be validated by the Microsoft update,” said Avast researcher, Przemyslaw Gmerek.
Only weeks ago Microsoft warned of a new rootkit that it said would require a complete OS reinstall.
Link:
Rootkit infection requires Windows reinstall
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