Microsoft: One In 14 Downloads Is Malicious

alphadogg writes "About one out of every 14 programs downloaded by Windows users turns out to be malicious, Microsoft said Tuesday. And even though Microsoft has a feature in its Internet Explorer browser designed to steer users away from unknown and potentially untrustworthy software, about 5% of users ignore the warnings and download malicious Trojan horse programs anyway. IE also warns users when they're being tricked into visiting malicious websites, another way that social-engineering hackers can infect computer users. In the past two years, IE's SmartScreen has blocked more than 1.5 billion Web and download attacks, according to Jeb Haber, program manager lead for SmartScreen."

How to get free software signed?

[tepples]

Your joke has a point. Any Free [gnu.org] application that isn't digitally signed with Authenticode will get flagged by IE's "SmartScreen application reputation" filter [msdn.com]. And as I understand it, existing Authenticode CAs sell certificates only to businesses, not to individuals.