Operating System Infection Rates: The Most Common Malware Families on Each Platform

Tim Rains - Microsoft
 
In my last article on operating system infection rates I discussed the malware infection rate trends for operating systems and service packs. Many customers ask me about this data because it helps them understand how specific platforms are performing with regard to mitigating attacks over time. The long term trend indicates that newer operating systems and service packs have lower malware infection rates than older software.
The security professionals I talk to are also interested in learning about the specific families of threats that are detected most often on the platform(s) they operate in their environment. This data helps customers defend against the most common attacks on the specific platform(s) they use in their environment. This is especially true given that exploit activity has been so high over the past year.
Figure 1: The malware and potentially unwanted software families most commonly detected by Microsoft antimalware solutions in the second quarter of 2012 (2Q12), and how they ranked in prevalence on different platforms
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