MSRT: Progress Made, Trends Observed

While the Yahoo Yamanner worm was a flash-in-the-pan, there's a whole slew of threats that aren't. Tackling these persistent infectors is no easy task, yet there's good news on that front from Microsoft. A new whitepaper from the Microsoft AntiMalware team discusses the Windows Malicious Software Tool, a utility included as part of the monthly Windows patch releases. Highlights from that paper, titled "Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool: Progress Made, Trends Observed", include:

• 5.7 million infected computers have been cleaned.
• A backdoor Trojan was present in 62% of the 5.7 million infected computers.
• 14% included a rootkit; 8% if the Sony rootkit is excluded.
• In 35% of the infected cases, some form of social engineering was at play.

For the complete report, download here.