Warez Software: The Risks

During this article I will download a few "free full versions". See whether the threat is real, or just something made up, perhaps all this talk about risks is just to scare people into not taking the chance at all? I will grab the resultant warning and you can make up your own mind.

Do you ever download full version software that is accompanied by a crack? Obtain copies from market stalls, or that your mate copied from his? Are you really likely to become a victim of some malware, trojan, or virus, if not worse, by doing so?

The short answer, as you will see, Is that it's very possible.

Ok, well for a start, if the app you are using connects to the internet, and then It's likely the vendor would be notified. People do get reported to their ISP.

Not enough to bother you?

Money is probably the biggest loss you face, though losing time, and what may be irreplaceable data, is always a possibility, just to make it interesting.

So let's have a look at what people say in defence, or just ignorance:

"I've downloaded cracks before and never found nothing". Ever hear somebody say that? Chances are, they don't have the measures in place to detect what's going on out of sight, and it's not the average Joe that has the required measures, by default.

"Cracks are detected because the AV vendor has been paid to say so. There's no risk at all". Well, I wouldn't put much faith in that statement. Some people will tell you these are false positives, and you should disable your anti-virus in order to run the crack. The self proclaimed "experts" in this area. These are likely the same knowledgeable folk that will tell you it's ok to disable your firewall to obtain a download, and you know that's something you never ever do, right?

Supposing your anti-virus flags a download as a possibility, or a probable variant of a know risk? This is the heuristics detection at work. Is it a false positive or real danger? You have no choice in the matter, since the download is interrupted, but surprisingly, users will disable the AV until the download completes!

"As long as you have all the windows updates, up to date anti-virus and everything else, you will be protected". Simply not true. People still get infections just by casual surfing alone. If you're about to run a dodgy exe file on your desktop, what does that imply?

You might come across other tales of people getting away with it. They must be lucky! More often than not, they're the ones with the slow, problematic machine, and all that implies.

Why, is easy. Profit, or gain by some other means. "There's gold in them thar machines!" It's a simple fact that many people downloading these things won't have a clue what's going on and are easy targets. It's big business. The same old story.

The following can happen, dependant on how savvy you are, but are based on a real occurrence.

How?

"Here's XP, mate. Unattended install, no activation needed. Only a fiver!" Interesting offer, if that's what you need badly. So you take it home, boot it, and next thing you know, you have XP running. What a bargain!

Unattended means you play no part in the installation. Anything could be installed. You won't know. It doesn't apply to unattended installs alone though. System files can be replaced before the copy is even written to the CD.

You start using it, and obviously want it up to date, so you start surfing. Whoops! You are now informed that you are the proud owner of a none genuine copy.

Worse may be to come. You may be the unwitting owner of a now compromised machine that is under remote control, and can be controlled by the remote perpetrator as though they were sitting there in front of it. What would be the biggest nightmare download you can think of? Odds are that's one of the reasons it's been compromised. Or perhaps your machine will join the army of "zombies" and take part in a united attack. Or maybe you will be watched and listened to via your own cam and microphone? How does that grab you? Read your letters, log into your private accounts etc. Totally possible.

Think you're knowledgeable enough to stand the downsides? Nothing gets past you, right? Been in the game too long. Or you just needed something so badly, and others you know were ok, that you just did it.

Or has this article maybe changed your view? You never know what's around the corner, and cracked software is a big money spinner, so It gets compromised left, right and centre, in order to generate cash from the uninitiated.

Beware, or fall.....