BSA conducts survey on software irregularity in Brazilian companies

Data collected by the association in actions to suppress the irregular use of software shows that there are more illegal programs than machines in some sectors; practice results in compensation to tool owners, among other consequences

BSA | The Software Alliance, the leading global advocate for the software industry before governments and the international market, discloses the results of a survey carried out between 2018 and 2019 on irregular software found in companies in the design, architecture and engineering segments throughout Brazil.

The association analyzed about three thousand machines, which were inspected judicially, and found a high rate in the use of illegal software in Brazilian companies. The data comes from agreements resulting from legal actions taken by the BSA.

In some regions of the country, such as the south and southeast, the existence of even more illegal software than specialized computers was found, with different versions of irregular programs installed on the machines. One of the most emblematic cases is that of a construction company in the southern region, in which 63 unlicensed programs were found on 27 machines.

“The research results are impressive, as they show that even companies that work with technology and projects still engage in illegal practices using irregular programs and violating the intellectual property of software manufacturers. This practice results in a material loss for the companies, since in addition to paying compensation to the software owners, they will have to acquire the license ”, says BSA's country manager in Brazil, Antônio Eduardo Mendes da Silva (Pitanga).

Despite the data obtained in the survey, the current scenario is expected to change in the coming years. This is because professionals have been aware of the risks to the company when they resort to irregular software. According to another recent BSA study, 48% of CIOs rank malware as one of the top three reasons for executives not to use unlicensed software. Their main concerns in relation to these threats include the loss of corporate or personal data, system inactivity, network interruptions and the cost of disinfecting these systems, which ends up impacting the entire corporation and its development.

Irregular software

Software irregularity is the practice of illegally reproducing a computer program without the express authorization of the owner of the work and, consequently, without the use license, as well as the benefits and support of the original version.

"It is essential to clarify to society the risks of buying illegal software or applications, because, in addition to the vulnerability to viruses, in general the software does not receive constant updates, leaving the user susceptible to attacks, hijacking and data theft", explains Pitanga. Depending on the purpose of the tool, the lack of updates can be even more harmful, as is the case with engineering. "Today, there are solutions that can suit the needs of each company, including renting the software license for a specified period."

One of the main threats when using these tools without authorization is that machines are more exposed to cyber attacks. According to the same BSA study, eight new malware threats appear every second every day. These attacks are also becoming increasingly expensive, as they cost on average US$ 2.4 million for companies. Malware-related activities represent a staggering US$ 600 billion annually - or 0.8% of global GDP - spending for the world economy.

Each infection can lead to costly downtime, as well as lost productivity and business opportunities and additional IT labor costs to help mitigate the attack. To complicate efforts, these offensives are often difficult to detect and resolve. Organizations need, on average, 243 days to detect an attack and up to 50 days to resolve it, the study reports.