Microsoft warns about rise in computer viruses worldwide

A Microsoft security expert said that computer viruses are on a rise worldwide once again after years of being less popular amongst computer attackers.

In a report by Fox news, the security expert Tim Rains said that although viruses were less chosen to attack systems by hackers nowadays as they used other forms of threats, but recently Microsoft security has observed that viruses are on a rise for the first time after years of being not in action.

According to Rains, the reasons of high infection rate are co-related to the low broadband penetration rate, adding that the lower the rate of broadbrand the less the chances of network-enabled malware like worms and Trojans to spread.

According to the report, viruses that made for 5 percent of the total global malware reached to 7.8 percent by the end of 2012, adding that most of the virus infections have been traced to countries like Indonesia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Egypt.

The most popular computer virus is Win32/Sality, a software that disguises its malicious properties from the anti virus programmes and infects the system.

It is frequently seen attacking systems running on Windows XP and as it is polymorphic it is less active and detectable on Windows Vista and other latest operating systems.

According to the report, though viruses are still easy to detect and remove, users are still advised to keep their anti-virus software updated and avoid downloading data from unknown websites or transfer data with USB or external drives.