BackUse of unlicensed software at 58% in India, says BSA survey
The BSA survey says Asia-Pacific region leads the use of unlicensed software with 61%
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About 58% of the software installed in computers in India are unlicensed, according to a new global software survey from 2015 and early 2016 by BSA |The Software Alliance, a trade group that represents world’s largest software makers.
The survey found that the Asia-Pacific region leads the use of unlicensed software with 61%. The survey—Seizing Opportunity Through Licence Compliance—says that computer users in India are using unlicensed software at an alarming rate despite the proved link between unlicensed software and cyber attacks.
The cost of dealing with malware incidents is staggering. In 2015, for example, cyberattacks cost businesses over $400 billion.
However, the overall drop in personal computer shipments coupled with an increase in the use of free and open source software and lower prices for some paid-for software has led to a drop in the rate of unlicensed software.
“As the report underscores, it is critically important for a company to be aware of what software is on the company network," said BSA |The Software Alliance president and chief executive Victoria A. Espinel. “Many CIOs don’t know the full extent of software deployed on their systems or if that software is legitimate."
Here are the key trends from this year’s report:
• 430 million new pieces of malware were discovered in 2015, up 36% from 2014.
• Organizations experience some form of malware attack every seven minutes.
• In 2015, more than half a billion personal information records were stolen or lost through data breaches.
• 39% of software installed on computers around the world in 2015 was not properly licensed, representing only a modest decrease from 43% in BSA’s previous global study in 2013.
• Even in certain critical industries, unlicensed software use was surprisingly high. The survey found the worldwide rate is 25% for the banking, insurance and securities industries.
• CIOs estimate that 15% of their employees load software on the network without their knowledge. But they are significantly underestimating the problem; nearly double that amount—26% of employees — say they are loading unauthorized software on the network.
Regional highlights:
• The region with the highest overall rate of unlicensed software was Asia-Pacific at 61%, a one percentage point decline compared with BSA’s previous survey in 2013.
• Central and Eastern Europe came next with a 58% unlicensed software rate (falling three-points from the rate registered in 2013).
• Middle East and Africa was at 57%.
• North America continues to have the lowest regional rate at 17%, although this constitutes a significant commercial value of $10 billion.
• In Western Europe the overall rate dropped one percentage point to 28%.
Despite these numbers, the findings show a keen awareness of the problem:
• CIOs said their highest concern was loss of data associated with such a security incident.
• CIOs also said that avoiding security threats is a critical reason to ensure that the software running in their networks is legitimate and fully licensed.
• In the broader survey of employees, 60% cited the security risk associated with unlicensed software as a critical reason to use legitimate, fully licensed software.
The overall findings point to a significant hidden cost associated with using unlicensed software as it opens up an organization to cyber risk. The findings also argue for instituting first line of defence: ensuring that no illegitimate or unlicensed software is acquired by anyone, the software is regularly updated and security patches are installed as soon as they are received.
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