Fake Software Users Pay Dearly: IDC

A study conducted by market research company, International Data Corporation (IDC) on behalf of Microsoft this year(2013) revealed that software piracy is not only costing the software manufacturers, developers and resellers money, but that consumers and businesses are losing billions of dollars due to losses they suffer because they have used counterfeit software. In the end, it would have often cost less to just buy the real software.

Most of the victims are actually honest consumers who buy seemingly great computer deals from rogue sellers, it said.

The IDC study, called: "The Dangerous World of Counterfeit and Pirated Software", found that the chances of infection due to unexpected malware are one in three for consumers and three in 10 for businesses.

It also stated that consumers would spend an estimated 1.5 billion hours and $22 billion identifying, repairing and recovering from the impact of the malware, while it would cause global businesses to shell out approximately $144 billion in 2013.

Potential losses from data breaches could reach nearly $350 billion this year, the research company said.

Pirated software refers to software that has been knowingly and illegally duplicated and distributed, and is unlicensed.

Counterfeit software is fake software presented as the genuine article, and it often contains a nasty surprise in the form of malware that has already been embedded into it, which is why it puts so many consumers' and businesses' machines and networks at risk.