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Out of every 14 downloads you do, one is a malware
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 19 May 2011, 22:45 IST
Bangalore: Through its newly released browser, IE9, Microsoft has drawn a ratio for the number of times a malware is been downloaded,.
An Application Reputation mechanism which is a latest feature added to IE9 showed that out every 14 downloads that a user does, one turns out to be a malware. IE9 has recorded that it blocks nearly 2 to 5 million attacks a day for IE8 and IE9 customers. The number ratio is of only IE users.
Malware is the short form for malicious software, consists of programming (code, scripts, active content, and other software) designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, gain unauthorized access to system resources, and other abusive behavior.
Application Reputation is a URL based method which detects sites which have malware. It also checks how many times it was downloaded and who all have downloaded the malware.
According to Jeb Haber, Program Manager Lead for SmartScreen said that a new file which is created might not look like a malware but there is a possibility that it could also be one. He said using the Application Reputation mechanism; the users can protect themselves from newly released malware programs which pretend to be legitimate software programs that are not yet detected by existing defense mechanisms.
He also mentioned that Reputation also enables IE9 to remove unnecessary warnings for downloads with an established positive reputation. For example, a digitally signed application from a well-known publisher that has been widely downloaded has a better reputation than an unsigned application that has not yet been downloaded widely and has just been posted on a newly created website.
Microsoft said, the company noticed that 99 percent of those that used IE on a newly-released piece of malware chose not to delete or to run the program after IE issued its warning.
