The BSA Software Alliance (BSA) said it will rollout a campaign targetting 5,000 firms in the Philippines that may still be potentially using unlicensed or illegal software.
The leading advocate for the global software industry said this as an advancer to its virtual press briefing on “BSA Campaign 2021” to be held on July 21. The campaign is aimed at ending corporate use of unlicensed software in the Philippines.
“This year, BSA will roll out a campaign targeting 20,000 design and engineering firms, construction companies, and manufacturers across Southeast Asia who may potentially be using unlicensed or illegal software. This includes 5,000 firms in the Philippines, 5,000 firms in Thailand, 5,000 firms in Malaysia, and 5,000 firms in Indonesia,” the BSA said.
As part of the campaign, BSA will work closely with the government in each country to educate business leaders to end corporate use of unlicensed software and help them legalize their software.
Tarun Sawney, Senior Director, BSA | The Software Alliance, and the representatives from the Optical Media Board (OMB) will share information and views regarding the campaign.
The event will also highlights the success of OMB’s inspections for unlicensed software in the Philippines in 2020 and share insights on the further plans to reduce corporate use of unlicensed software in 2021.
Last year, Sawney said that BSA was building on its Legalize & Protect campaign with its ASEAN Safeguard initiative, offering free consultation to 40,000 companies across Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Of these companies, Sawney said 10,000 are from the Philippines. The companies BSA is reaching out to those it has identified as high risk and particularly vulnerable to cyber threats, and ASEAN Safeguard is designed to support them on their journey towards full software legalization.
Sawney explained that the use of unlicensed software also deprives companies of protection from cyber-attacks.
Data from BSA members including IBM and McAfee showed that cyber security threats are exacerbated by the widespread use of unlicensed software in Southeast Asia, which is often packaged with malware or contains security vulnerabilities that leave devices open to attack.
BSA estimated that 64 percent of companies in the Philippines were using unlicensed software.