Due to increasing use of computer and the Internet, there has been a rise in illegal copying of software. Software piracy is the unlawful reproduction and distribution of software. The ease with which software is pirated is creating a vexing problem for software publishing industry. Today software piracy is costing software industry billions of dollars annually in lost revenues. It may even force some companies to go out of business. This paper provides a short introduction to software piracy.

As a result of digitalization, retail organisations have more freedom and opportunities to reduce the cost of transitions, capture many new customers, maintain positive relationships with current customers, and provide positive energy and motivation to employees by offering a variety of benefits such as work from home and remote working, as well as allowing consumers to purchase goods and services from any location [1]. When employees are working or when customers visit the retail business network, the retail business is concerned with maintaining a secure connection [2]. Most employees and consumers use computers and mobile devices for work, so they require a secure connection as well as protection against the sharing of sensitive information and data [3]. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence the adoption of virtual private networks in the retail industry using secondary data. According to the findings of this study, Virtual private networks (VPNs) are necessary for providing secure connections over public networks. There are numerous factors that have an impact on the adoption of virtual private networks in retail businesses to create a risk-free and secure network. These factors are both direct and indirect. Virtual private networks (VPNs) not only provide security for network and data access, but they also assist in keeping the data that is made available safe and secure.

Software Piracy becomes a major problem with the fast and vast growth in the use of the internet, and the new computer technologies is aided in increasing software piracy. In this work, a software protection system against piracy is proposed. This proposed system uses standard techniques to ease these difficulties such as Zero knowledge proof, Improved RSA, MD5, and Triple DES. The proposed system use a proposed method to protect all the system files, and a proposed algorithm to generate software Copy Identification Number called (ICN). The implemented system where a software application hashes hardware serial numbers to generate a unique Installation ID. This Installation ID is sent to the manufacturer to verify the authenticity of the application and to ensure that the product is not being used for multiple installations.