Microsoft Cyber Trust Blog: Your Antivirus protection has expired. So what? You might be surprised. Microsoft’s new cybersecurity report explains.
" When you buy a new computer, often times it will come pre-installed with software provided by the manufacturer. [...] Typically this protection is provided for free during a 30, 60, or 90 day trial period. [...] Should they decline to purchase, the security software will continue to operate; however, it will not receive updates for new threats that are discovered. So what’s the problem with this approach? **
It might be tempting to think that running expired software might continue to provide an adequate level of protection. If only this were true. [...]
From the chart, we can see that systems that run expired security software are four times more likely to be infected with malware than those running up-to-date security software. Furthermore, there was only a .2 percent different in the number of systems Microsoft cleaned of malware when comparing those that were not running security software to those that had expired security software.
Infection rates for non-domain computers running Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 with and without adequate up- and the first half of 2014
[...] The data shows us that the vast majority of cases where computers were reporting expired antivirus software were on non-domain joined systems, a configuration that consumer systems typically have. Of the non-domain systems analyzed, 9.3% were running expired antivirus software.
Addressing the problem
In light of this information, we encourage people to verify that they are running up-to-date security software on their system. If they aren’t, there are many different free or paid options available. [...] For more information on additional security software providers, I encourage you to check out Microsoft’s security partner webpage.* "
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* - Consumer Security Software Provider:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/antivirus-partners#AVtabs=win7
** - Microsoft Security Intelligence Report:
http://www.microsoft.com/sir
" When you buy a new computer, often times it will come pre-installed with software provided by the manufacturer. [...] Typically this protection is provided for free during a 30, 60, or 90 day trial period. [...] Should they decline to purchase, the security software will continue to operate; however, it will not receive updates for new threats that are discovered. So what’s the problem with this approach? **
It might be tempting to think that running expired software might continue to provide an adequate level of protection. If only this were true. [...]
From the chart, we can see that systems that run expired security software are four times more likely to be infected with malware than those running up-to-date security software. Furthermore, there was only a .2 percent different in the number of systems Microsoft cleaned of malware when comparing those that were not running security software to those that had expired security software.
Infection rates for non-domain computers running Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 with and without adequate up- and the first half of 2014
[...] The data shows us that the vast majority of cases where computers were reporting expired antivirus software were on non-domain joined systems, a configuration that consumer systems typically have. Of the non-domain systems analyzed, 9.3% were running expired antivirus software.
Addressing the problem
In light of this information, we encourage people to verify that they are running up-to-date security software on their system. If they aren’t, there are many different free or paid options available. [...] For more information on additional security software providers, I encourage you to check out Microsoft’s security partner webpage.* "
------------------------------------------------------
* - Consumer Security Software Provider:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/antivirus-partners#AVtabs=win7
** - Microsoft Security Intelligence Report:
http://www.microsoft.com/sir
