Ted Miracco and everyone at Cylynt (pronounced sī-lənt) could be considered real-life Marvel Comics crimefighters as they battle software piracy around the globe.
I recently spoke to Ted who is CEO of this ESD Alliance member company. We discussed the recent name change from SmartFlow Compliance Solutions to Cylynt, its success as an anti-piracy and cybersecurity crime stopper and move to become a software-as-a-service (SaaS) market intelligence platform.
Ted Miracco, CEO of Cylynt
Is there a market for anti-piracy software?
My answer is a definitive yes. The market opportunity for this type of software is huge. The BSA Software Alliance found that nearly 40% of all software installations worldwide are being used illegally. Software companies are losing more than $46 billion of potential revenue a year.
Many companies use license managers to protect their software IP. License managers are good at providing a check-in and check-out mechanism for companies that want to pay for software and they are well served. Large enterprise-wide users can deploy a license manager on a server with a number of licenses and provide access to those licenses with various software monetization strategies.
License managers generally do not prevent software piracy, and they are also susceptible to commercial overuse or over-deployment. For example, a multinational company could be using a “North America only” license that follows the sun 24/7. Another common instance of over-deployment occurs by rehosting a license, while continuing to use the software on the old computer. Outright piracy can occur when a rogue employee installs a counterfeit license, or a bogus website or corrupt reseller sells counterfeit software as the genuine product. All legitimate companies need to know if this type of software was installed on their networks, as it is not only illegal, but also can come loaded with trojans and malware that can expose the company to IP theft and ransomware.
