The newly published Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) has said that the Windows 7PC is more at risk of having malware than XP computers.
Microsoft said that in the last quarter of 2013, the Windows 7 computers it scanned were more likely to be infected by malware than PCs running Windows XP. An infection rate of 2.59% was found for Windows 7 PC compared to 2.42% for XP.
Windows Vista was also affected by malware. Microsoft has calculated the infection rate for each version of Windows is calculated by comparing an equal number of computers per version.
The company said that infection rates jumped drastically from Q3 to Q4 2013 mainly due to the Rotbrow family of malware which presented itself as a browser add-on.
Microsoft Security Intelligence Report said that Windows 7 can provide better security than Windows XP if configured in a proper manner.
The infection rates measured in computers cleaned per thousand (CCM -- yes M, the Latin for thousand) rose from 5.6 in Q3 to 17.8 in Q4 of last year on the back of the Win32/Senfit click fraud bot.
The CCM rates for Vista and Windows 7 were higher than XP for the quarter. The report shows an infection rate of 25.9 percent for Windows 7, 32.4 percent for Vista and 24.2 percent for XP.