The contrast with laissez-faire, market-driven countries such as the US and the UK couldn't be less flattering. In these countries, security threat data is often generated and held by private companies while security policies and response varies hugely from ISP to ISP. True to market principles, some ISPs and CERTs see intervention as being beyond their remit.

Microsoft also noticed a correlation between infection levels and piracy rates where low rates of illegal software corresponded to fewer malware detections.

According to Microsoft's Tim Rains, these themes accord with a paper, , published by the company in 2010, which advocated more sophisticated policies of intervention.

"Governments, the IT industry, and Internet access providers should ensure the health of consumer devices before granting them unfettered access to the Internet," says Tim Rains in a blog on the research.

"It seems as though the consistently least infected regions in the world, which I examined in this blog series, are already doing many of the things the Collective Defense health model proposes."