Piracy harms not only the market – CHIP

The most recent report commissioned by the BSA | The Software Alliance confirms the relationship between unlicensed and malware on personal computers. The analysis of international research firm IDC shows that the greater the rate of unlicensed software in the country, the more computers infected with malicious software. A proposal for governments, businesses and end users is obvious: to remove unlicensed software on their network can reduce the risk of security breaches.

Malware can cause considerable damage, and organizations looking for the best ways to before protect him. The analysis shows that the relationship between the use of unlicensed software and infections is real, which means that the proper management software is a key first step towards reducing the risk – said Jodie L. Kelley, senior vice president of BSA | The Software Alliance.

In the statistical analysis compared the rate of unlicensed software installed on your PC in 81 countries with a measure of the prevalence of malware is tracked by a member of the BSA, Microsoft. It turned out that there is a high positive correlation (r = 0.79) between the index and the number of unlicensed software infection. Further analysis suggests that the rate of unlicensed software helps us to predict , if malware is present in the country.

The report is based on research flagship BSA, which examined the use of global indicators unlicensed software in the world. The report BSA Global Software Survey published in 2014 showed that 51 per cent. software installed in Poland in the previous year did not have a license, compared with 43 per cent. on a global scale. We also found that the main reason for computer users around the world avoid unlicensed software, there are fears of malware. As regards the basic risks associated with the use of unlicensed software 64 percent. respondents is unauthorized access by hackers, and for 59 percent. – The loss of data.

BSA encourages organizations to implement internal control measures, such as software asset management practices ( Software Asset Management , SAM) comply with ISO standards, in order to reduce the risk by ensuring that all software installed on their systems is fully licensed.