Windows 10 is the biggest desktop OS out there – and remains the juiciest target for malicious actors, with threats becoming more sophisticated.
If you’re running Windows 10, should you get an antivirus app? There are certainly some good reasons to do so, as we’ll explore in this article, not the least of which is that Microsoft’s operating system is so popular that it makes a seriously tempting target for malware authors in terms of the potential spoils to be gotten. Windows 10 is the most widely used desktop operating system in the world, and as the OS of choice for many PCs everywhere, it represents a broad and juicy target for malware authors. Quite simply, if someone writes a piece of malware that exploits Windows 10, then there are a lot of potential targets out there that the malicious software might end up on. So, it’s no surprise that Windows users (including the unwise folks who remain on Windows 7) are the biggest targets for malware authors. Now, it’s true that in recent times, malicious actors are giving Apple’s Mac platform more attention, but Windows is still the operating system which is most under threat, of course. Particularly when it comes to malware, with Mac threats tending to be the likes of potentially unwanted programs (known as PUPs) or adware. The vast majority of the really malicious stuff is hurled at Windows machines. Going by the latest ‘state of malware’ report covering 2019 from Malwarebytes [PDF], the amount of malware detections may be remaining at the same level as the previous year, but it’s still a large quantity – and what’s worrying is that these threats are becoming more sophisticated in general.
