Global Windows malware infection analysis
I have aggregated data from over 20 volumes and special editions of the SIR to provide a view of how the threat landscape evolved over a long period of time. The first measure we’ll look at is the worldwide average CCM. This is the number of systems that the MSRT found to be infected with malware for every 1,000 systems it scanned around the world. Figure 4.1 includes all the time periods that Microsoft published CCM data for in the SIR, each quarter between the third quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2016.
Figure 4.1: Worldwide average malware infection rate (CCM) 2008–2016 (Microsoft Corporation, n.d.)
The horizontal axis illustrates the time periods represented by the quarter and year. For example, 3Q08 is shorthand for the third quarter of 2008, while 4Q13 is the fourth quarter of 2013. The vertical axis represents the worldwide CCM for each time period. For example, in the 1st quarter of 2009 (1Q09)...
