What are the Dangers of Using a Pirated Antivirus Software?

What is Software Piracy

A paid software is said to be pirated if it is illegally copied, distributed, and used for free. Both the distributors and the users are considered Computer or Software Pirates. The roots of software piracy lie in the three type of software tools called Cracks, Patches, and Keygens. These are used to extend the lifetime of the trial period of a software, patching a software to bypass the license check, and to activate a software with illegally generated keys. You can read about them here:

https://thepcinsider.com/crack-patch-keygen-mean-windows-software/

Dangers of using Pirated Antivirus Software in Windows

The first software that users install on their Windows in the Anti-virus (Anti-malware). It can be safely said that more than 90% of all Windows installs have some sort of Antivirus software installed. There are many free great antivirus software available for users. But because of the hype and praise of paid version and the added features, people get inclined towards installing and using them on their systems. This causes multiple problems for the user.

1. Illegal Activity

The first kind of problem is moral in nature. This is breaking the law by illegally activating the paid software for free by using cracks, patches and keys.

2. Virus Attack

The second type of trouble caused by using these activation tools is Computer Infection. Most of the times, these activation tools come with various malware. Here’s how these tools can infect you:

  1. The original developer of these activation tools may have coded malware in his software.
  2. The people distributing these tools online or offline may have modified these modifiers (activation tools), and added malware in them.
  3. The websites from where these tools are downloaded may have malware scripts running on their sites or may have attached malware along with the main file in your download.

These things can cause the computers to crash, or get infected with malware such as viruses, spyware and ransomware.

3. Data Loss

The most deadly problem caused by the pirated software is of Data Loss. Like previously mentioned, most of the times, these activators include various malware. Trojan, Spyware and Ransomware are not as harmless as Viruses and Worms. Spyware can record and send your keystrokes over the internet to its developer (s). With Spyware on your system, your banking details, passwords and other important information could be at stake. You can also get infected by a Ransomware, which is the cancer of computers. Once installed, a ransomware encrypts all of the files. Then it asks the user to pay a certain amount of money to get all of its files decrypted. If you don’t pay, your data is gone. Even if you pay, there’s no guarantee that your files will be decrypted, or the software will not encrypt them again.

4. Identity Theft

Spyware can record and send your keystrokes over the internet to its developer(s). With Spyware on your system, your banking details, passwords and other important information could be at stake, and you could become a victim of Identity Theft.

5. Performance and Productivity Impact

Trojans can do all sorts of nasty things on your system; they can install other malicious programs such as backdoors, change Windows settings, disable/enable ports, programs and settings, send file and data information to its creator(s) over the internet, etc.

6. Personal Profile and Sensitive Information Loss

Only a few megabytes of images or documents are enough to be create a serious problem to the user. The fear of getting your private information public can make you a victim of cyber crimes.

So, it’s pretty evident how dangerous it can be to use pirated software. We have many great free alternatives available for most of the Home User paid software. If you don’t like the annoyances found in some of the free versions of paid products then you can pay and upgrade any time. It’s always better to stay away from these activator tools.

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