Infosecurity – Windows XP may be the operating system getting the most flack for opening up users to hackers and exploits, but it turns out that Windows Vista and Windows 7 experienced the highest infection rates in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Microsoft discontinued support – including security patches – for XP in April (with an exception), opening up the door for a rash of zero-days attacking the system – so it’s likely that these numbers will radically shift for the second-quarter report. But Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report detailed the vulnerability levels in various versions of Windows prior to the end-of-life cutoff for XP, and disclosed that Windows Vista, which was released in 2007, has an infection rate of 3.24%, compared to 2.42% for Windows XP, released in 2001. And at 2.59%, Windows 7 falls in the middle.
