Trend Micro has suggested that Microsoft's policy of recommending that users exclude some file types from antivirus scans actually helps hackers.

"Trend Micro took exception -- not with the list itself, but with Microsoft making it public," writes Computerworld's Gregg Keizer. "'Although it actually makes sense to stop checking Windows Update and some Group Policy-related files if you really want to speed up the system, we are concerned by the fact that this was released publicly,' said David Sancho, a malware researcher with Trend Micro, in an entry to his firm's blog."

"Sancho argued that the list could be a boon to hackers," Keizer writes.

Click here to read the Computerworld story.