According to this article, Vista has climbed past the 10% market share in the world of OSs.  Even with all of the complaining and annoyances people have shared towards Microsoft’s newest operating system, it seems to be doing well, but that is not what this is about.  Vista has reached the 10% market share level, which means it will really start getting the attention of hackers and fellow criminals.  As their findings will affect more and more people, online criminals can sadly make a decent amount of money with regards to finding and selling vulnerabilities to the highest bidders.  This next year will really put Vista to the test…

Microsoft Corp. will face more than 40 vulnerabilities in Windows Vista next year, as the operating system climbs past the 10% market-share milestone and malware authors really start to find flaws, a McAfee Inc. analyst said today.

“Most of the current malware has ignored Vista,” said Craig Schmugar, a threat researcher at McAfee’s Avert Lab — but that’s not because the operating system has been frustratingly secure against attack. Rather, Schmugar argued, Vista’s gotten off easy its first year because hackers didn’t think it was a worthwhile target.

“These people make their living writing malware or attacking users,” he said. “They’re driven by financial motivation, and only when market share has an impact will they really work on Vista.”

At some point in 2008, Vista will own a tenth of the desktop operating system market, Schmugar predicted. The milestone should mark the beginning of concerted efforts by attackers to root out vulnerabilities in the newer operating system. “Although the huge market share that XP has means [attackers] will still be profitable there for years to come, Vista at 10% will put it on their radar,” he said.[more]

Tags: Hackers