- Joined
- Sep 12, 2004
- Location
- Up$hitCreek
The Cost of Cybercrime
- Thread starter Mousey
- Start date
zaaaaabaaaaam
Dormant account
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2011
- Location
- wonderworld
How is $130 billions more than triple $60 billions?
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2004
- Location
- Pictland
Yes, and when corporations are attacked we often find out where the skeletons are buried, or who is going to be a skeleton in need of burying.
Industrial espionage -- and that's what data theft is -- is part of the cost of being in an industry and has been since there were industries to be part of. Complaining about such things is like complaining about rainy days: you might feel better doing it but it doesn't change things much, and it probably wouldn't be a good thing if it did.
I worked in the software biz for years and there was always this kvetching about piracy et al. Truth is they grossly inflated the potential losses and wholly deflated the impact of increased sales due to the product's accessibility to a larger audience, an audience who becomes paying customers down the road.
One company I was part of did an anonymous study of their products sales over a three year period. They found that if they leaked a pirated version of the software shortly before it's official release a few months later the legit sales over the following year were typically higher than if they did not leak a pirated version.
The same company commissioned a survey graduating students and asked them about a number of software products they had used in their work at school, most of which they had pirated. There was a clear correlation between the stolen software they used as students and the software they'd recommend to and/or request from their future employers. Piracy is, or can be, a marketing technique.
Needless to say that same company was an outspoken anti-piracy lobbyist. Go figure!
Industrial espionage -- and that's what data theft is -- is part of the cost of being in an industry and has been since there were industries to be part of. Complaining about such things is like complaining about rainy days: you might feel better doing it but it doesn't change things much, and it probably wouldn't be a good thing if it did.
I worked in the software biz for years and there was always this kvetching about piracy et al. Truth is they grossly inflated the potential losses and wholly deflated the impact of increased sales due to the product's accessibility to a larger audience, an audience who becomes paying customers down the road.
One company I was part of did an anonymous study of their products sales over a three year period. They found that if they leaked a pirated version of the software shortly before it's official release a few months later the legit sales over the following year were typically higher than if they did not leak a pirated version.
The same company commissioned a survey graduating students and asked them about a number of software products they had used in their work at school, most of which they had pirated. There was a clear correlation between the stolen software they used as students and the software they'd recommend to and/or request from their future employers. Piracy is, or can be, a marketing technique.
Needless to say that same company was an outspoken anti-piracy lobbyist. Go figure!
