Over 90 per cent of new personal computers purchased by Microsoft from India have a high-level of pirated software, according to an analysis by the software-giant.
Nine Asian countries, including India, have a high-level of pirated software loaded on personal computers.
Microsoft purchased the personal computers between May and July this year, and then tested them, which showed that more 83 per cent of them acquired from the nine countries were loaded with pirate software, according to the analysis of newly purchased systems.
The tests showed that India had 91 per cent of the new personal computers loaded with pirated software, followed by Indonesia 90 per cent, Taiwan 73 per cent, Singapore 55 per cent and the Philippines 43 per cent.
The worst were South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, all with 100 per cent of the purchased personal computers loaded with pirated software.
Out of the 166 personal computers bought from nine countries, 22 were purchased from Indian shops at random, 20 of which were loaded with pirated software when tested out by experts, said Mary Jo Schrade, Assistant General Counsel and Regional Director of Digital Crimes Unit in Asia at the Microsoft in Singapore.
Calling on consumers to make a choice for genuine software when buying computers, Schrade said 17 units had malware out of the 20 acquired in India for the tests.
Overall, the 166 personal computers acquired from Asian countries, 137 or 83 per cent were loaded with pirated software.
In her efforts to educate people, Schrade cautioned: "Think! Free software is not really free."
Schrade warned, "Cybercriminals are constantly evolving their techniques to evade security measures and embedding their malware into pirated software is one of their tactics as it allows them to compromise large numbers of personal computers and access the amount of stolen credentials with ease."
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