Research from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) shows that there is a strong connection between illegal software and malware. According to a report (PDF) from the Alliance, the risk to become infected by malware increases when more pirated software is used.
The results are from a 'regression analysis' which the BSA explains as 'a statistical process for estimating the relationships among variables'. The numbers the BSA report show a 'strong positive correlation between malware and unlicensed software'.
In the report the BSA explains further, "Specifically, the correlation coefficient is 0.78, where 1.0 is a perfect correlation. By comparison, the correlation between education and income level is 0.77, and the correlation between a nation’s adherence to the rule of law and its level of IT sophistication is 0.79. The closer the coefficient is to 1.0, the stronger the relationship between the two variables under study, and the more likely that the value of one will be able to predict the value of the other."
Therefore the BSA concludes that there is strong correlation between using illegal software and malware. The Alliance argues that illegal software can expose companies to cyber risks and that therefore illegal software can become a huge expense for a company. Not only financially, also damages to the company's reputation should be taken in account.
The BSA argues that not using illegal software and timely applying security patches are the most important security measures.
The report also shows that the global piracy rate is down 43% to 39%. The largest piracy rate is in Asia, where 61% of the software is not properly licensed, the lowest in North America, with an average rate of unlicensed software use of 17%.
