Security Company Sophos has issued a warning following published research from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) associated with the risk of using pirated software. According to the BSA, no less than 35% of the world's computers have at least one pirated software program installed. Sophos' perspective on the issue is that pirated programs deliver an additional route to infection and leave both business networks and home users vulnerable to attacks.

"Putting aside the obvious legal issues, piracy can have a real impact on a company in terms of security," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "It's not enough to make sure that all PCs are running legitimate copies of Word, businesses must also control what programs their employees are downloading, installing and running. Patching against software vulnerabilities is key to any good IT security policy, but with pirated software this becomes near impossible. Pirated software downloaded from dodgy websites or bought from a man in an alleyway will not come with technical support, and may even be virus infected."

With the general availability of Windows Vista since the end of January 2007, the issues of piracy have also come into focus. As Vista is slowly replacing Windows XP as the dominant operating system on the market, it is also gaining a prominent position as far as piracy is concerned. Users are often ready to ignore risks in order to get access to the new technologies that Vista brings to the table, but at the dirt cheap prices of counterfeit copies, or even for free in the case of the versions downloaded over peer-to-peer networks.

It is essential to understand that nothing in life is for free. And a free copy of Windows Vista will end up costing users far more than the sum written on the price tag of the genuine product. "Businesses simply cannot afford to ignore piracy," continued Cluley. "The corporate network is the backbone of any company and if you allow users to run anything they like on it, whether illegal or not, you shouldn't be surprised when it breaks."

But neither can home users. The repercussions of deploying and using pirated Windows Vista copies are related to the negative impact delivered to the network infrastructure, but also to the local system and to user experience.