IDG News Service: Microsoft has done a good job of making Windows more secure, but are Windows users better off today than they were five years ago?

Eva Chen: If Microsoft thinks it's secure enough, why do they bother to come up with MS Security Essentials for a free download on the side? With so much social engineered malware it actually has nothing to do with whether Windows itself is secure or not. It's the user's behavior. Plus there are so many applications -- either the browser or other applications' vulnerability, not just Windows.

IDGNS: It almost sounds like you're saying that things are worse?

Chen: Yes I would say so. …It has nothing to do with whether Windows is secure or not. It's just that the whole environment is much more unsafe. Hackers are making more money. And with the economic downturn, the criminal rate is going up, and therefore [there is] more cybercrime.

IDGNS: People say that conventional antivirus has not been up to the task and maybe even takes the wrong approach.