It is a fact that many businesses are using general software illegally by downloading cracked software commercial versions. This unintentionally puts those computers and all business data at a significant risk.
Here we can mention 2 groups of risks that businesses may encounter including:
- Legal risks when there are inspections from intellectual property protection agencies.
- Risks to information security and system stability.
What is illegal cracked software?
Paid commercial software all have ways to control the distribution of copyright (license), via user-named or serial number (for Autodesk software, it has now switched to user-named form). Cracked versions of the software are created to disable or fool these copyright-checking systems.
Of course, regular users will not be able to crack commercial software themselves, they will have to download this software from many different sources and follow the instructions to crack and use it. Cracked versions are created and shared by individuals or groups specializing in this work on many different channels, and most commercial software has cracked versions.
Legal risks from competent authorities
In every country, there are agencies tasked with protecting intellectual property rights, and these agencies work closely with software manufacturers. Especially recently in Vietnam, copyright control is gradually becoming more stringent. These units will have a list of companies that are “in need of inspection”, and they will go directly to the businesses and take the following steps:
- Check the ownership documents of the software that the business has purchased.
- If there is any doubt, these units have the right to seal the computer.
- Install special software to scan and check installed software (even if you have deleted it).
- Look up products (e.g. drawings) created by software and see what software they were created by.
- If a violation is detected, you will be forced to buy the software you used illegally and pay a small penalty fee.
So how do you know if your business is “in need of inspection”? Basically, businesses will always be in a state of waiting for inspection for the following two reasons:
- From the products that the business has created, the marketing images of the business’s products, the copyright agency or software company can put the business under suspicion. Because in the current era, it is difficult for any manufacturing or construction business to not use software to support their work.
- Commercial software companies all come from developed countries, and many talented people are gathered to program this software, and bypassing them is not as simple as just a few mouse clicks to crack the code. You can understand that some of these businesses let jailbreaking happen and it makes it easier to proliferate their software. No one knows that among the billions of lines of code, companies have settings in which the detection of software is being run; compare it with the sold list, thereby tracking down unofficial units; and will they work with the local agency to make sure you buy their software?
Risks to information security and system stability
As mentioned above, cracked versions of software are created by certain individuals and organizations, and you can also realize that if these units are knowledgeable enough to crack a commercial software, They can also easily change and add code to other locations of the software. And this change will have many different purposes – of course no one does free work, especially creating these cracked versions is not simple but you see them a lot, and is widely shared online.
The groups that create the jailbreaks may come from well-funded cybercrime syndicates or organizations of unimaginable complexity. So what can a jailbreak software do?
- Install a keylogger to capture real accounts, passwords, anything you enter into your computer (risk of losing business accounts, social networks or credit cards, etc.).
- Install a back door to access and install special applications to use your computer for profit or illegal activities (for example, there was a time when some people were exploited for cryptocurrency mining). right on their computer).
- Use your computer as a storage device (files are hidden) to store illegal materials.
Another risk that can be mentioned is the loss of a business’s intellectual property or data being locked and blackmailed.
- Your designs may be publicly offered for sale.
- Patents or company secrets can be stolen.
- Sometimes your business is big enough and the information is valuable enough to be leaked and sold to competitors.
- An accessed computer can lead the way to the entire controlled corporate network.
- Computer data can be encrypted, locked, and accompanied by ransom information to unlock it.
If you follow the news, you will see that the frequency of these types of attacks is increasing significantly. Embedding malicious software such as viruses and malware into cracked versions is also corrected and supplemented, because cracked versions will not be able to use updates from the manufacturer and you will have to download them manually. New jailbreak for each update.
It must also be mentioned that sometimes jailbreaks will make the software unstable and cause data loss and damage.
Vina Aspire is a consulting company, providing IT solutions and services, network security, information security & safety in Vietnam. Vina Aspire’s team includes skilled, qualified, experienced and reputable experts and collaborators, along with major domestic and foreign investors and partners to join hands in building.
Businesses and organizations wishing to contact Vina Aspire Company with the following information:
Email: info@vina-aspire.com | Website: www.vina-aspire.com
Tel: +84 944 004 666 | Fax: +84 28 3535 0668
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