Malware stays around on infected PCs far longer than previously thought, according to the latest research from Trend Micro.
Previous estimates suggested that a compromised machine remains infected for approximately six weeks. Based on an analysis of around 100 million compromised IPs, Trend Micro concludes that many infected IPs are infected (or repeatedly infected) for more than two years, with a median infection length of 300 days. Four in five compromised machines are infected for more than a month.
A
graph from Trend Micro suggests that if systems aren't disinfected quickly then infection tends to linger around indefinitely, possibly until the point users exchange compromised boxes for new machines.
