Security experts have voiced their concern over Microsoft's new Vista operating system and its ability to combat viruses and other malware threats.
Some 97 per cent of delegates polled at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco said they believed Vista would have problems with security for years and would not combat the number of threats that are targeting the system.
"We already know that hackers are being paid to find weaknesses in Vista. The security kernel has been compromised," said one delegate.
"With so many machines getting this new operating system installed, cyber criminals and hackers will be finding new ways to break into the operating system. They no longer want to just cause chaos, they want to steal money from users."
The new operating system - Microsoft's first since Windows XP was launched five years ago - has already been hit by security fears that its speech recognition system could be used by malicious users to remotely delete files or do other tasks without the user's knowledge.
Microsoft has since dismissed the threat, saying that although it was technically possible, it didn't consider it much of a realistic threat.
