Consumers are adopting Windows 10 quicker than enterprises, who still rely on Windows 7.
According to Webroot's latest Annual Threat Report, almost all the devices that fell victim to the WannaCry ransomware attack were running Windows 7, and the attack alone is estimated to have caused $4 billion in losses to businesses.
In January 2017, only 20% of observed business computers were running Windows 10; that figure climbed to 32% by the year-end. In contrast, Windows 7 was running on 62% of the systems in January, but had dropped to 54% share by the end of the year. Windows 8 was at 4% in December 2017, down from 5% in January, while Windows Vista (1%) and XP (<1%) both represented minuscule percentages at the end of 2017.
However, "home user" migration to Windows 10 was a lot quicker. By December 2017, almost 72% of home user devices had migrated to Windows 10, up from 65% in January while Windows 7 dropped from 17% in January to 15% in December, and Windows 8 fell from 14% to 11%.
However, the report also found that organizations’ users who deploy not only corporate-owned devices but also their personal smartphones, tablets, etc., are subject to a much higher occurrence of malware per device (0.55 infections per device on average over the year) than business-owned or managed devices (0.42 infections). Even organizations with strong BYOD policies were often unaware of the precise security status of a user-owned device.
Webroot said: "While Windows 10 won’t solve all security woes, it’s a step in the right direction. Combined with advanced endpoint protection that uses behavioral analysis and machine learning, adopting Windows 10 can greatly reduce enterprises’ vulnerability to cyber-attacks."