Microsoft remains 'fully committed' to protecting customers from malware

There’s no question that Windows is a lot safer now than it used to be, thanks to Microsoft adding features like automatic updates, SmartScreen, and Windows Defender to its operating systems. I wouldn’t fully trust the built-in protection as my sole line of defense, but installing security software is no longer the very first thing I do on a new PC.

Dennis Batchelder, Partner Group Program Manager for the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, says that Microsoft remains fully committed to protecting its consumer and business customers, and highlights some of the things the company is doing behind the scenes to keep users safe.

According to Batchelder, although around 80 percent of the malware that customers encounter is known or proactively blocked, new threats are emerging every day, so "Microsoft has developed early warning telemetry and faster signature delivery systems to respond to these".

He goes on to add that the Malware Protection Center exists to "serve and protect" Microsoft’s customers, and so is focusing on real threats. Batchelder says that millions of customers have voluntarily opted to let their computers share telemetry data with Microsoft on encountered threats, helping to identify and prioritize new malware.

Microsoft isn’t working in isolation either, as the company shares its telemetry and samples with anti-virus partners and testers in order to best address real world threats that impact all customers.

Batchelder sums up the Malware Protection Center’s work, saying, "The end result is that, over the past year, our investments have increased the protection quality we deliver to our customers. As of the middle of 2013, we’ve increased our protection quality -- that means less incorrect detections and less misses -- by a significant rate since we first started measuring these metrics in the last quarter of 2011. We are proud of the protection capabilities we provide for well over 150 million computers worldwide with our real-time antimalware products. We believe in Microsoft antimalware products and strongly recommend them to our customers, to our friends, and to our families".

Do you trust Microsoft to protect you at home or work?

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