Software Auditing: Effectively Combating the Five Deadly Sins

There is a far greater risk to business today than the conventional seven deadly sins, of avarice, gluttony and so on. The risk is tied up in what the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) in the UK calls the five deadly sins: illegal software; the unauthorized use of software; virus attack; malicious tampering and hacking. Costly and embarrassing raids by FAST have proved devastating, and the growing body of research undertaken by its Australian counterpart, the Business Software Association of Australia (BSAA), has highlighted the need for corporate business to clean up its act, and become far more accountable for its software use and management.