It has long been assumed that there is a connection between unlicensed software and cyber security threats. In fact, BSA’s most recent Global Software Survey found that computer users cite exposure to cybersecurity threats from malware as the chief reason not to use unlicensed software.
To test whether this relationship is indeed real or imagined, BSA commissioned a new analysis from global research firm IDC comparing rates of unlicensed software installed on PCs with a measure of malware incidents on PCs across 81 countries. The results show there is a strong positive correlation between unlicensed software and malware encounters – the higher the unlicensed software rate in a country, the more malware (more…)