Unpatched PC's survival time: 20 minutes <article>

Article in The Globe and Mail

Unpatched PC's survival time: 20 minutes

By MATT LONEY and ROBERT LEMOS
Special to CNET News.com


LONDON — Don't connect that new PC to the Internet before taking security precautions, researchers at the Internet Storm Centre warned Tuesday.

According to the researchers, an unpatched Windows PC connected to the Internet will last for only about 20 minutes before it's compromised by malware, on average. That figure is down from around 40 minutes, the group's estimate in 2003.

The Internet Storm Centre, which is part of the SANS Institute, calculated the 20-minute "survival time" by listening on vacant Internet Protocol addresses and timing the frequency of reports received there.

"If you are assuming that most of these reports are generated by worms that attempt to propagate, an unpatched system would be infected by such a probe," the centre, which provides research and education on security issues, said in a statement.

The drop from 40 minutes to 20 minutes is worrisome because it means the average "survival time" is not long enough for a user to download the very patches that would protect a PC from Internet threats.

The Article in The Globe and Mail