The global financial crunch and the ensuing inflation that it is causing is forcing many businesses to cut down on costs, but in spite of the fact that this is the case many of the methods that businesses are using might do more harm than good with all things having been considered and taken into account. Small to medium businesses in particular are having a rough year, and many of them are turning to pirated software to reduce their expenses.
56% of small to medium enterprises stated that they liked the idea of pirated software because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping them to save a bit of money. However, according to Kaspersky this might cause an uptick in the number of cyber attacks that these businesses would be faced with. Around 9,685 users of Kaspersky’s formidable antivirus software ended up getting infected with malware, and using pirated software may have led to this increase.
Despite the dangers that are being associated with the use of pirated software and programs, only 7% of small businesses with fewer than 50 employees were willing to stop using them. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that using open source software might be a better option. While there are still some risks involved with OSS, it can at the very least be a safer option that would allow businesses to face fewer threats than might have been the case otherwise.
Kaspersky also made another recommendation to businesses, which is that they should have employees use standardized accounts that don’t have admin rights in the system. That way even if their accounts get compromised the malicious actors won’t be able to infect the rest of the system. Whatever methods end up being used, SMEs can’t afford to take the risks that are associated with pirated software. They might be able to save money, but that would come at the expense of ransomware attacks and malware such as crypto miners that run in the background.
Read next: The Google Chrome extension, with over a million installed, takes over the targeted browser
56% of small to medium enterprises stated that they liked the idea of pirated software because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping them to save a bit of money. However, according to Kaspersky this might cause an uptick in the number of cyber attacks that these businesses would be faced with. Around 9,685 users of Kaspersky’s formidable antivirus software ended up getting infected with malware, and using pirated software may have led to this increase.
Despite the dangers that are being associated with the use of pirated software and programs, only 7% of small businesses with fewer than 50 employees were willing to stop using them. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that using open source software might be a better option. While there are still some risks involved with OSS, it can at the very least be a safer option that would allow businesses to face fewer threats than might have been the case otherwise.
Kaspersky also made another recommendation to businesses, which is that they should have employees use standardized accounts that don’t have admin rights in the system. That way even if their accounts get compromised the malicious actors won’t be able to infect the rest of the system. Whatever methods end up being used, SMEs can’t afford to take the risks that are associated with pirated software. They might be able to save money, but that would come at the expense of ransomware attacks and malware such as crypto miners that run in the background.
Read next: The Google Chrome extension, with over a million installed, takes over the targeted browser
