US bans Kaspersky antivirus software for alleged Russian links

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceqq7663wd2o

by GalaadJoachim

25 comments

  2. In my opinion the article would have been better if mentioning one little background detail.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Kaspersky

    >At the age of 16, Kaspersky entered a five-year program with The Technical Faculty of the KGB Higher School,[14][15] which prepared intelligence officers for the Russian military and KGB.[6][7] He graduated in 1987[14] with a degree in mathematical engineering and computer technology.[3][7] After graduating college, Kaspersky served the Soviet military intelligence service [5] as a software engineer.[1][9] He met his first wife Natalya Kaspersky at Severskoye, a KGB vacation resort, in 1987.

  5. What’s so alleged about those links? It’s a Russian owned company with headquarters in Moscow, Russia. It doesn’t get more obvious than this.

  6. > The US has announced plans to ban the sale of antivirus software made by Russian firm Kaspersky due to its alleged links to the Kremlin.

    > Moscow’s influence over the company was found to pose a significant risk to US infrastructure and services, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Thursday.

    > She said that the US was compelled to take action due to Russia’s “capacity and… intent to collect and weaponise the personal information of Americans”.

    > “Kaspersky will generally no longer be able to, among other activities, sell its software within the United States or provide updates to software already in use,” the Commerce Department said.

  8. So before that ruzzian paid spyware aka “antivirus” was ok in US?!

  9. Kaspersky may have been fine 20 years ago, but the organization is widely known to be thoroughly infiltrated by FSB awhile ago. AV has access to all desktops files, its an obvious hacking vector.

  10. Thing is, even if Kaspersky right now doesn’t do anything shady – if Putins hounds knock down the door and force them to upload a virus into their next patch, what are they going to do?

    Correct, nothing. Because there is nothing they can do. Putin has already proven that he is willing to massacre innocent people and break international treaties, meaning such a virus strike would not even hit a 5/10 of all the evil shit he ever pulled.

    European governments and companies have already banned Kaspersky for a while. It’s the correct choice for the US to follow in those footsteps.

  11. all IT companies in Russia are working with FSB, otherwise they get “nationalized”.

    btw, that’s one of the reasons why you shouldn’t trust Telegram too much because it has russian servers, and, reason #2, nobody just leaves Russia like Durov. With that cash and knowledge about the system.

  12. Why it took so long? I stopped using Kaspersky since 2014. I stopped using any russian related softs whatsoever. Do your own research where and who is the owner or creator/maker.

  14. “Alleged Russian links”. Did they just discovered this?

  17. I used to be sympathetic to Kaspersky when the US had banned them in their installations. They are a reasonably good AV with a long history.

    Then Putin invaded Ukraine

  18. Links? They are literally one of the sponsors of BRICS Games that are currently underway in Russia.

  19. Alledged? I mean the guy who owns it has ties with fsb, worked in russian military and has hq in moscow. I think there are some signs

  21. Quite funny that reddit served me a Kaspersky ad right underneath this post

  23. For 5 years I built infrastructure for one of the biggest AV companies. On a Christmas party, while drunk, it was leaked in front of everyone that the company we worked for also had a sister company. That company as we later found out, was an Indian company that used the data gathered by antivirus client. This company would call, email or write the users with their obtained data.

    “Hi, your computer is infected! We can clean it for 600$” was the most GENTILE type of scam calls. Others, got much much more personal. Calls related to fraudulent inheritances, personal relationships, debt, etc.

    Antivirus companies are so fucking predatory. GDPR has done much to help, but it’s a drop in the bucket on the global picture.

  24. The word “alleged” is pulling a lot of weight.

  25. Regardless, McAfee is the best when it comes to antivirus programs.

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