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Using unlicensed software leaves you wide open to attacks from hackers who target company data like financial, customer and employee information. These types of malware threats are the number one reason not to use unlicensed software. Yet, according to a survey from the Business Software Alliance (BSA), 71% of the software installed on PC’s in Thailand is not properly licensed.
This year alone, the police raided 158 companies that were caught using illegal software. In total, police have found illegal software loaded onto 1,800 PCs. The annual earnings of companies caught using illegal software was in the region of 235 Million Baht, signalling a concerning trend of large companies using illegal software to reap bigger turnovers by lowering overheads.
The raids revealed that most of the illegal software was used by employees in businesses involved with construction and engineering. The illegal software included Autodesk, CNC MasterCAM, Microsoft, Siemens PLM Software, and ThaiSoftware.
Thailand remains behind other countries in Asia, where the average rate of unlicensed software use is 62%. It’s time for Thailand to improve it’s IT governance to avoid the serious security risks involved when using pirated software.
Sources:
http://www.stop.in.th/en/news_dt.asp?id=52
