Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

The latest data released by Microsoft has revealed some interesting truths regarding Vista, XP and security.  Nearly every possible aspect of Vista has been attacked, and it’s been labeled as a failure by many who continue to use XP and campaign for continued support.  However, data released in the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report shows that Vista is in fact less vulnerable to exploits than XP.

The data, which was collected from January to June this year, shows a decline of vulnerabilities from 116 to 77 in a downward trend that mirrors the industry, which, in turn, has a 19% decrease.  Regarding XP and Vista Microsoft found that in computers running XP, Microsoft’s own software contained 42% of the vulnerabilities attacked with third party software making up the other 58%.  However in Vista PCs, only 6% of vulnerabilities were in Microsoft software, and this is due to (according to Vinny Gullotto general manager of Microsoft’s malware protection center) new security technologies.

“Moving onto Vista is clearly a safe bet . . . For us, it’s a clear indicator that attacking Vista or trying to exploit Vista specifically is becoming much more difficult.” - Vinny Gullotto

It is also interesting to note that the Chinese-speaking world is becoming more of a target for attacks, as 47% of the browser exploits were aimed at Chinese computers (or rather those with Chinese as the system language).  This is obviously an unwanted side effect of China becoming a Global superpower.

So what can we learn from this?  Firstly, that Vista is, in fact, safer from attack than XP and that perhaps you should seriously consider upgrading.  Secondly, that the threat from these attacks is decreasing with overall numbers down and more attacks aimed at China and away from the West.

Source [Report]  [InfoWorld]