Anilrgowda

Windows Vista is wide open to nearly 40% of the malware currently circulating, Microsoft has admitted, following a report by Sophos.


Remarkably, with the new operating system just released to business, the software giant says in effect that there is nothing it can do about the threats in question -- Stratio-Zip, Netsky-D and MyDoom-O -- because they rely on social engineering to invade systems. The three threats together account for 39.7% of currently circulating malware, according to Sophos.


"Based on our initial investigation, Microsoft can confirm that these variants do not take advantage of a security vulnerability, rather they rely on social engineering to infect a user's system," Microsoft says in a statement.


While the email system built into Vista, Windows Mail Client, stops all of the top 10 viruses identified by Sophos for November, the three threats outlined can infect systems when a third-party email client is used, Sophos said last week. Stratio-Zip was November's top malware, accounting for one-third of virus traffic, says Sophos.