The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Wednesday called for enhanced awareness regarding software piracy which has emerged as a threat to businesses. Governments, private sector and NGOs should turn their attention to raising awareness about rampant piracy which has become a national security threat for many countries, said President PEW Dr Murtaza Mughal.
A recent study by International Data Corporation (IDC) has discovered that the chances of infection by unexpected malware are one in three for consumers and three in ten for businesses, he said. The cost of dealing with the impact has been predicted to be $114 billion in 2013 while in Asia Pacific the spending will reach $39 billion. Consumers world-wide will spend 1.5 billion hours and 22 billion dollars identifying, repairing, and recovering from the impact of malware, Dr Murtaza Mughal informed.
The study titled, “The Dangerous World of Counterfeit and Pirated Software,” found that 45 percent counterfeit software is downloaded from the Internet, 78 percent is downloaded from P2P networks in which 36 percent contained Trojans and adware. A separate study in Southeast Asia in February 2013 found an average malware infection rate of 69 percent.
Respondents informed that only 12 percent of the software was problem-free while 66 per cent of IT managers said that user-installed software increase security risks for their organisations. Dr Murtaza Mughal said that some people choose counterfeit to save money but ends up putting extra financial strain. The best way to ensure cyber security is to use genuine software and schedule a security check.
