Microsoft: Botnet infections double globally

Botnet infections have more than doubled over the last year, according to security statistics from Microsoft.

When Microsoft installs updates on Windows PCs, it takes a quick look for any infections, cleaning them up as it goes. Between those updates and its security products, it scans 600 million PCs around the world, analysing that data for its Security Intelligence Report.

Over the first half of this year, the software giant found 6.5 million botnet infections on those PCs - more than double the three million it saw in the second half of last year.

The majority of those were in the US, which saw 2.2 million infections. While the number of computers being added to botnets has jumped this year, the security situation is more positive overall, the report found.

The number of new vulnerabilities uncovered fell by 7.3% from last year, with application vulnerabilities - which make up the largest number of flaws - falling by 11.2% across all vendors.

It's about constantly remaining vigilant. These things are emerging all of the time

Microsoft's vulnerabilities made up 6.5% of the total in the first half of the year, up from 5.3% the year before, which the company attributed to an overall decline in flaws across the industry rather than more being found in its own software.

Even data breaches were down 46% from last year, which Microsoft attributes to awareness of data loss issues. More people were making use of Windows Update to keep their software current, with the number of users jumping by 75% since 2006.

Despite the good news, Microsoft says that security should remain at the forefront of users' mindsnew threats are emerging all of the time.

This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk