On Wednesday Microsoft Indonesia released the finding of a Southeast Asia-wide forensic study into personal computers that have been installed with pirated software. Conducted in December 2012, the company found that nearly 70% of the computers and DVDs inspected have been infected with some sort of malware. This affects well known PC brands as well as self built computers.
The findings show that The Philippines have the lowest malware infection rate with two of every five computers and DVDs (40%) infected. In Indonesia, the infection rate is 60% among hard drives and 100% among DVDs containing pirated software. The study found that Malaysia follows Thailand as the safest Southeast Asian country when it comes to malware infection while Indonesia is third, with Thailand fourth and Vietnam fifth. The study excludes Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Laos, Cambodia, and East Timor.
It really doesn’t take a genius to realize that installing pirated and unauthorized software will lead to all sorts of unwanted side effects but this sort of study, which domes out frequently and almost on a regular basis, aims to put some numbers and facts into the theory.
Microsoft Indonesia’s national technology officer for public sector Tony Seno Hartono said, “Many people believe that buying a PC with a well known brand guarantees the security and comfort in computing experience. They don’t think twice about the bundled software included in the computer whether it’s licensed or pirated”.
While the results of this study may reflect the widely held belief that pirated software tend to carry malware, the scale of this study is rather disconcerting. This is supposed to be a regional study covering Southeast Asia but somehow Microsoft only performs checks on 282 personal computers and DVDs. The company did not even specify the breakdown of the computers vs the discs.
Out of the tens of millions of computers across the region, less than 300 computers were included in the study. This extremely limited scale unfortunately does put a doubt into the relevance of the results on the larger market. While the intention is commendable, it makes you wonder why the company did not conduct the study in a much wider scale.
The company says that while pirated software may be extremely affordable, the cost associated with having them installed is very high as these tend to have all sorts of spyware, key loggers and other types of malware hidden within the installations which may lead to data theft, data corruption, and significant financial loss, not to mention criminal prosecution if the Business Software Authority finds out.
Microsoft claims that these risks may also have come from computers which had been installed with non-Windows operating system somewhere within the distribution channel prior to being installed with pirated copies of Windows somewhere further along the channel.
Microsoft is promoting its anti-piracy site howtotell.com to help consumers identify legitimacy of their software.
