Microsoft, Alibaba partner to fight software counterfeiting

The two companies will work on strengthening measures to prevent pirated Microsoft products from being sold on Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace and Tmall.com online shopping websites. Under a memorandum of understanding, the two companies committed to jointly conduct programs through Alibaba’s ecommerce properties that alert consumers to the dangers of using counterfeit and unlicensed software.

The collaboration is part of ongoing efforts by Microsoft and Alibaba Group dating back to 2007 to educate consumers and businesses, boost internet security, and help the US software company battle Chinese counterfeiters and the widespread use of illegally copied Microsoft products in China.

Alibaba Group is a Chinese ecommerce company that provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services via web portals. It also provides electronic payment services, a shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services.

In recent news, Microsoft has unveiled that German speakers are being targeted by a new variant of a powerful type of malware that steals online banking credentials.