UK least affected by malware in Europe

A study by Panda Software, using an online malware measuring tool called Nanoscan, showed UK PCs as having the lowest level of malware infection in Europe.

France had the highest percentage of PCs with active malware, at 28.2 percent, followed by Mexico with 23.1 percent of PCs infected, Brazil with 18 percent, the US with 17.8 percent and Argentina with 17.4 percent.

Although only 8.1 percent of UK PCs scanned showed active malware, the country’s level of ‘latent’ or ‘inactive’ malware was much higher, at 20.7 percent.

The study only covered visitors to Panda Software’s site who asked to be scanned. This could explain the high levels of infection identified by the study, as members of this group could be considered likely to have an infected PC.

Panda Software has created a global malware map from data collected from thousands of PCs every 15 minutes.

The study found that around 8 percent of PCs scanned which showed active threats, were infected despite being already protected with anti-virus software, supporting Panda Software’s view that conventional signature-based malware detection is not fully effective in protecting PCs.

The company advises that anti-virus software should be used in conjunction with online tools such as Nanoscan and Totalscan.

The Nanoscan tool can be downloaded as a plug-in from Panda Software’s website.