14 DAY TRIAL // During TechEd 2006, Microsoft will make public the results of a 15 months research regarding the performances of Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (WSRT). From its initial launch, WSRT was executed nearly 2.7 billion times, by at least 270 million unique computers.
The report will accentuate the negative aspects of the collected security data but will highlight the positive impact that WSRT demonstrated during the January 2005 - March 2006 period.
On average, one out of every 311 computers running WSRT was found to be infected with malicious software. In the past 15 months, Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool removed 16 million instances of malware from roughly 5.7 million Windows computers.
Out of these, almost 3.5 million computers were infected with Backdoor Trojans, malware that allows attackers to gain control of the PC and steal confidential information. Backdoor Trojans were 62 percent of all removed malware, of which the large majority was bots, a sub-category of Backdoor Trojans which communicate through the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network.
Rootkits and worms are responsible for the 32% remaining malware identified and removed by WSRT.
Microsoft warns the March version of Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool has removed malicious software from nearly 20% of the already cleaned computers, which indicates that the malware threat is migratory in nature.