Cracked software opens the door to hackers

SGGPO September 7, 2023 18:03

The story of a Vietnamese business using "cracked" software (pirated software) leading to damage to property, important social media accounts and the business's brand is stirring up much debate in the community.

Cracked software is always a "delicious bait" for cybercriminals.

A business owner posted on Facebook about how his company's computer was infected with a "botnet", which hackers exploited for their own benefit, causing the business to suffer losses. The post quickly received thousands of shares, comments and attention, including both praise and criticism.

“Mr. T.'s computer was infected with a type of malware, not a botnet as the article called it. Malware generally comes in many forms, from trojans, rootkits, keyloggers or the most common type of ransomware today. Botnet is a network of "ghost" computers, also known as zombies, that are manipulated by hackers through vulnerabilities, or malware hidden in computers,” said Mr. Ngo Tran Vu, Director of NTS Security.

“With the popularity of the Internet today, criminals have many ways to spread malware to new users, or those who are indifferent to the security of their devices. Popular channels for criminals to find victims are blogs, forums, and social networks that share free, pirated resources. And of course, nothing is free, they always give away surprise gifts that victims don't know about,” said Mr. Vu.

Screenshot of post about security incident attracts much attention

In Mr. T's story, downloading pirated graphics software (cracked, cracked software) is an action that creates risks to his assets, including software copyright and security issues.

Small-scale businesses often do not take the issue of software copyright seriously, and want to use "genuine" software for free, so they freely download specialized software to serve their daily work, from pre-packaged versions of Windows operating systems (Ghost, Iso format), Office office suites or popular high-end graphics and multimedia software such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, AutoCAD, Vegas Pro... or even small-scale ones like file compression tools WinZip, WinRAR, IDM download tools.

In fact, malware embedded in pirated software is becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect by ordinary users. A new variant of the HotRat malware, recorded in August, continues to thrive in Southeast Asia through the widespread downloading and use of pirated software in the region.

Mr. Ngo Tran Vu said that comprehensive protection solutions such as Kaspersky Total Security are very useful for individual users or small businesses, this is a way to protect themselves from cyberspace.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/phan-mem-be-khoa-rong-cua-don-tin-tac-post704687.html