Computer Associates 2013 Annual Report Download - page 30

customer, regardless of whether the breach is attributable to our products, may cause contractual disputes and may
negatively affect the market perception of the effectiveness of our products and our reputation. Because the techniques used
by computer hackers to access or sabotage networks change frequently and may not be recognized until launched against a
target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques. Alleviating any of these problems could require significant
expenditures of our capital and diversion of our resources from development efforts. Additionally, these efforts could cause
interruptions, delays or cessation of our product licensing, or modification of our software, which could cause us to lose
existing or potential customers, and/or subject us to legal action by government authorities or private parties, which could
materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flow.
Our software products, data centers and IT environments may be subject to hacking or other cybersecurity
threats, resulting in a loss or misuse of proprietary, personally identifiable and confidential information and
harm to the market perception of the effectiveness of our products.
Given that our products are intended to manage and secure IT infrastructures and environments, we expect to be an
ongoing target of attacks specifically designed to impede the performance of our products. Similarly, experienced computer
programmers or hackers may attempt to penetrate our network security or the security of our data centers and IT
environments. These hackers, or others, which may include our employees or vendors, may misappropriate proprietary,
personally identifiable and confidential information of the Company, our customers, our employees or our business partners
or other individuals or cause interruptions of our services. Although we continually seek to improve our countermeasures to
prevent and detect such incidents, if these efforts are not successful, our business operations, and those of our customers,
could be adversely affected, losses or theft of data could occur, our reputation and future sales could be harmed,
governmental regulatory action or litigation could be commenced against us and our business, financial condition, operating
results and cash flow could be materially adversely affected.
Discovery of errors or omissions in our software products could materially adversely affect our revenue and
earnings and subject us to costly and time consuming product liability claims.
The software products we offer are inherently complex. Despite testing and quality control, we cannot be certain that errors
or omissions will not be found in current versions, new versions, documentation or enhancements of our software products
(collectively, our Products) after commencement of commercial shipments. If new or existing customers have difficulty
deploying our Products or require significant amounts of customer support, our operating margins could be adversely
affected. We could also face possible claims and higher development costs if our Products contain errors that we have not
detected or if our Products otherwise fail to meet our customers’ expectations. Significant technical challenges also arise
with our Products because our customers license and deploy our Products across a variety of computer platforms and
integrate them with a number of third-party software applications and databases. These combinations increase our risk
further because, in the event of a system-wide failure, it may be difficult to determine which product is at fault. As a result,
we may be harmed by the failure of another supplier’s products. As a result of the foregoing, we could experience:
•Loss of or delay in revenue and loss of market share;
•Loss of customers, including the inability to obtain repeat business with existing key customers;
•Damage to our reputation;
•Failure to achieve market acceptance;
•Diversion of development resources;
•Remediation efforts that may be required;
•Increased service and warranty costs;
•Legal actions by customers or government authorities against us that could, whether or not successful, be costly,
distracting and time-consuming;
•Increased insurance costs; and
•Failure to successfully complete service engagements for product installations and implementations.
Consequently, the discovery of errors in our Products after delivery could materially adversely affect our business, financial
condition, operating results and cash flow.
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