A new report has revealed that illegal distribution of copyright material through the internet is continuing at a faster rate despite efforts to combat it.
Security breaches in both mobile and desktop software applications are driving the increase, with six million releases pirated last year.
The report said the extent of digital media piracy is far more extensive than commonly realised.
In 2015, videos such as TV shows and movies accounted for around 50% of pirated content. Adult content accounted for nearly 25% of releases identified.
The cost of all these copyright infringing releases in 2014 is expected to be in excess of $800bn. They are projected to increase to 96 million by the end of 2015 – a 22% increase over the past three years.
The report said if distribution of pirated games continues at the existing rate, more than 31,000 unauthorised releases will be active in 2015, double the number of pirated releases three years ago.
There is a further cost arising from malware linked to pirated software as enterprises will invest $491bn because of malware related to pirated software.
Arxan chief marketing officer Patrick Kehoe said: "The findings in Arxan’s State of Application Security prove that piracy is one of the greatest threats to intellectual property and creative content, highlighting the enabling role pirated releases play in spreading extremely harmful malware across a range of industries – where the challenges of defending against it – are complex, but not insurmountable."
The report is based on analysis of data collected over the past three years by Arxan Technologies and iThreat Cyber Group.
