The report also covers another area where Internet crime is known to flourish: auction sites. In 2005, a study was done on software sold on eBay and roughly 50 percent of the items purchased had malicious/unwanted elements or had been tampered with.
While auction sites have worked with outside industries on preventing theft and abuse, they generally disclaim any responsibility for what occurs on their site. Additionally, there is little to no protection for the consumer buying these products (my opinion).
Because of this, the BSA is calling for auction sites to assume responsibility, step up the warning process on their sites and slow the process down by eliminating the "buy it now" process, which makes monitoring illegal sales nearly impossible.
The software industry isn't the only industry calling out issues with auction sites. In August, two bills were introduced to combat crime on auction sites, which were largely supported by the National Retail Federation. The sale of stolen or counterfeit goods in general has long been an issue on these sites. A good resource to learn about the danger of counterfeit good in general is the International Anticounterfeting Coalition.
The BSA offers a lot of tips for consumers on how to avoid becoming a victim in their recently released report. It also offers a more visual means of learning by offering a video on the subject.
Suspected piracy can also be reported at the Business Software Alliance's Online Cyber Safety site or by calling 1-888-NO-PIRACY.
Article comments
1 - Mark Buckingham
Interesting piece. The piracy I hear the most about is computer software, specifically games. The notion of paying for a pirated copy of something seems counterintuitive for the end user. If you're going to pay anyway, why go to the hassle of pirating it?
2 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
a misguided employee of the Wagner Resource Group of McLean Virginia used his office computer to download video and music files using Limewire and exposed the entire corporation to the dark side of the Internet.
Luke... What dumbass could possibly be your father?!
Seriously, who the hell pays for pirated software? Who is stupid enough to think that P2P is still a viable & untraceable outlet for illegal d/l'ing so much so to use it on a company computer?? AND.. How did this numb-nut get a job in a financial firm?!
A lot of pirated software is sold via downloads. When this occurs, the normal form of payment is a credit or debit card. This means that the person who buys pirated software is providing this information to a criminal, who in turn might use it again or sell it to a third party. Like pirated software, credit/debit card information is sold on the Internet in underground chat rooms.
This mainly happens to people who fall for email phishing,input financial information directly into websites that are not secure(https://)& they don't use paypal or their own bank's service when paying bills.
I don't think this article is very helpful. If you are striving to "educate" the consumer on these unlawful practices then maybe you should include an article that highlights the measures that can be taken to secure your computer from these "attacks"[if you consider what I just said in the prior paragraph].
3 - bliffle
In one sentence: pirated and pirating software is loaded with viruses whose intent is to steal your identity info.
Why else would anyone provide it free?
Instead of paying $100 for a copy of Windows you will pay with $10,000 worth of identity theft.
4 - Jakey
Stupid dumbass why would you do something like that?..!!
5 - Jakey..
go on copter on google its cool..!
6 - bliffle
It is not only pirated software that might contain a serious security leak virus, but also paid-for commercial software. I know of two commercial software packages that were being shipped in spite of known viruses in the code. They couldn't get rid of them and they kept shipping. Fortunately, neither company is still around, and I have no idea what happened to their software.
7 - Sherry Vega
I agree, anyone dumb enough to use a company computer to download anything off the net has got to be one oar short.
Today, the dark side of the net shows itself in more ways than downloading pirated software. Which I agree, buying pirated software is very dangerous because of embedded Trojans and their ability to install silently. It is even more dangerous to download P2P software.
The financial company involved are as much to blame as the guy that downloaded the Trojan. For not protecting their network.
8 - Captain Black
Argh matey! The BSA can put the end of me cock in their mouth and bli'me!