The US technology giant, which built its fortune selling programs for personal computers, held a Consumer Action Day on Wednesday to highlight risks posed by pirated software and resources for people vexed by bogus applications.<\/p>\n
“It is all too common for software pirates to tamper with genuine code,” Microsoft head of global anti-piracy enforcement David Finn said in an interview posted at the firm’s website.<\/p>\n
“Why wouldn’t a criminal syndicate that manufactures counterfeit software merely add a few lines of malicious code in order to compromise the security of your computer and victimize you a second time by stealing your identity or personal information?”<\/p>\n
Criminals often go as far as to duplicate the packaging of legitimate Microsoft software, making it difficult for people to tell whether they are buying authorized versions, according to Finn.<\/p>\n
“We know a lot of people still think of software counterfeiting as a victimless crime,” Finn said. “Yet, I think we’ve hit a tipping point. The sheer increase in the rate of counterfeit software reports is remarkable.”<\/p>\n
Finn leads a team of lawyers, paralegals, investigators and forensic specialists working with governments, businesses, partners and customers to thwart software pirates.<\/p>\n
Consumer reports of counterfeit software doubled to more than 150,000 in the past two years, with people voluntarily alerting Microsoft online at websites such as microsoft.com\/howtotell.<\/p>\n
“We’re not talking about some average Joe copying his install disk here,” Finn said. “Software piracy has become much more sophisticated. More and more, there are serious criminals engaged in this.”<\/p>\n