Security vulnerabilities falling, says Microsoft

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Malware, Trojans and high-level vulnerabilities are all on the rise, but overall the number of vulnerabilities is falling, according to Microsoft.

In its fifth Security Intelligence Report – which analyses hundreds of millions of computers globally – Microsoft said that the amount of malware being removed from computers is up 43 per cent during the first half of the year. Trojan downloaders remained the top form of malware, at 30 per cent.

While the number of “vulnerability disclosures” fell four per cent, those rated as high severity jumped 13 per cent – now making up nearly half of all vulnerabilities - those being the attackable flaws in code which Microsoft looks to patch once a month.

Vinny Gullotto, general manager of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, said in a webcast: “High severity numbers have increased somewhat… to me not huge, as vulnerabilities are not the primary focus for people trying to make money on the internet.”

But such attacks are increasingly targeting applications, the firm claimed, saying 90 per cent of vulnerabilities discovered in the period were in apps, with the rest affecting operating systems.

“Vastly different from what we’ve seen in the past,” said Gullotto, adding that while it’s partially because of increased OS security features, it’s more an issue of maths. “There’s so many more applications than there might have been ten years ago.”

Despite the increased attacks, Microsoft claimed some success in security, saying the number of vulnerabilities hitting its own operating systems and applications had fallen by 33.6 per cent in the first half of this year from the second half of last year.

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