Not sure about that.

Maybe if we did a questionnaire and asked how many people had a virus from installing a legitimate version of windows 7 we would still get the same results.

Why ?

A lot of people don't actually know if they do or not, i have seen that even "Intelligent" people blame everything on viruses.

So if a graphics card does not work they may think its a virus etc.

I see ericrollo's point though. It's "Uk Workers" not "UK IT Workers". These are the people we dont trust anything to, trusting their answer that they got a virus and lost data from "pirated software" is not necessarily indicative. If the report was based on professional evaluations of what happened (ie it was taken to a shop who diagnosed a virus and it was found as a result of pirated software) that might be different. But some of these people truly believe that the moment the computer does something unexpected (like display an error message) its the result of a virus. Or if they lean on the delete key and blitz their documents, its the result of a virus (or The Man perhaps).

Despite this, 62 per cent said they had suffered a computer virus as a result of using pirated software, and 31 per cent said they had lost personal data.

HUH???????????

I've worked for a couple of companies now where use of pirated software is wide spread. SO much that the development departments use some to produce new software, and the IT department uses some to helpw ith teh day to day running of the network etc. I've even seen 1 md using known pirated or illegaly licenced software.

For some companies it seems that they think its ok to use Office on 100 PCs even if thier only licened for 50 etc, as they cant afford to pay for more and how would MS find out anyway? The IT guys re ok so long as when it comes to an sudit any illegal stuff is removed until the audit is over.

Now some of this stuff is not torrented software. It comes from a vendor but only for single user licence. This wont have a virus, but its still illegal to install on 100 pcs. Thats not going to infect a network witha virus, but its still not right. For most it seems tehy will turn a blind eye so long as it dosent cost and gets the job done.

The torrented stuff is where you may get a virus as they can come from unreliable sources in teh first place. But as a company dosent know, they wont worry until its too late.

I heard from the IT guy in one company in our area that he was told not to bother buying licences as "that c**t Bill Gates has too much money anyway, and he'll never find out", and that was by the MD of the company.

We use absolutely nothing in the way of illegal software despite efforts by some staff who were in favour of bringing in their hacked copy of photoshop etc. In fact we've just squeezed some extra cash out of the budget to make sure we're well covered for office licenses.

I'm also fairly clear whenever I do any private work (which I don't do much) that I will only support legitimate software, I'm more than happy to suggest free alternatives to people as well so that they stay on the right side of the law.

Couldn't agree more. That's the way I run my little business too.