Let’s face it, everyone that runs a computer with Microsoft Windows has encountered a computer virus at some point on their machine. With the billions of dollars Microsoft spends each year patching security holes and vulnerabilities, WHY is Windows still so susceptible to computer viruses?
More and more we see news of how business entities are paying tens of thousands of dollars to get their data back after a ransomware infection. While ransomware is probably the most destructive virus you can get these days, there are still just as many scareware, malware, and plain old viruses that still run rampant through the Microsoft Windows ecosystem. So, again we ask: “Why is this still such a common issue with Windows?”
Since the dawn of the PC era, Microsoft Windows has been at the forefront of cyber-attacks. From corporate espionage to aggrieved programmers, Windows has survived a plethora of would-be assassins looking to take-down Windows-based networks and computers. With each exploit revealed, Microsoft succinctly responded creating hot fixes, patches, and security updates to remediate each vulnerability. While initial cyber-attacks may have been more nefarious in nature towards a specific business or even Microsoft itself, clever programmers found an opportunity to exploit and exponentially growing population of Windows users.
While super-geeks have claimed for decades that Linux-based system are far more secure and less prone to viruses than Microsoft Windows, the hard truth of the matter is a far different story. What those clever programmers recognized early on was the return on investment (ROI) of targeting Windows over any other platform. Currently, nearly 1.5 billion systems worldwide[1] run a Windows-based operating system. With that in mind, ROI becomes a simple numbers game. Applying additional logic that Linux users are far too few and generally far more tech savvy (or simply don’t have the money to shell-out for Windows) make them a very, very low ROI target. To illustrate this, apply a little math to ransomware that can hold your data hostage for a single bitcoin. Let’s say a specific ransomware has the potential to infect a quarter of a percent of Windows-based computers worldwide, and only a quarter of a percent of those infected users are willing to pay that single bitcoin to get their data back:
Here’s the math:
- 1,500,000,000 x .0025 = 3,750,000
- 3,750,000 x .0025 = 9,375
- Current bitcoin value[1] (as of the writing) = $10,401.10 USD
- 9,375 x 10,401.10 = $97,510,312.50 USD
$97,000,000.00 is a heck of a lot of money regardless of how long it took to write the ransomware. Even if only a tenth of a percent of infected users are willing to pay a single bitcoin to the ransomware masterminds, that still equates to over $37,500,000.00 USD! With this fraction of a fraction of a percentage number in mind, the incentive to target Windows can clearly be discerned.
The conclusion to this question of “Why are viruses still such a common issue with Windows?” is that Windows-based operating systems are not necessarily far more susceptible to computer viruses like ransomware, rather Windows has a massively larger target painted on it’s back just from the sheer number of Windows-based systems alone. This makes it a bigger ROI than targeting Linux-based systems. The bottom-line is that Windows is just as secure as Linux, however those clever programmers work harder to target Windows because the ROI is far greater.
To learn about how to shrink the target your on Windows-based systems and network’s back, give UNUTek a call today!
[1] Monday, September 21, 2020
[1] ZDNet – It’s 2020: How many PCs are still running Windows 7?
