Kaspersky Lab - The Russian Company That Is a Danger to Our Security

[c627627]

Read this in the New York Times today:

"...Kaspersky Lab insists that it has "no inappropriate ties with any government." The company's products, which are readily available at big-box American retailers, have more than 400 million users around the globe. And it provides security services to major government agencies, including the Department of State, the National Institutes of Health, etc...

But at a public hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee in May, six top intelligence officials, including the heads of the F.B.I., C.I.A. and National Security Agency, were asked if they would be comfortable with Kaspersky Lab software on their agencies' computers. Each answered with an unequivocal no. "

"The firm's billionaire founder, Eugene Kaspersky, graduated from the elite cryptology institute of the K.G.B., the Soviet Union's main intelligence service, and was a software engineer for Soviet military intelligence. He vehemently dismisses concerns that his company assists Russia's intelligence agencies with cyberespionage and claims that he is the target of Cold War-style conspiracy theories. But Kaspersky Lab has committed missteps that reveal the true nature of its work with Russia's Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., a successor to the K.G.B."

"Bloomberg recently reported on emails from October 2009 in which Mr. Kaspersky directs his staff to work on a secret project "per a big request on the Lubyanka side," a reference to the F.S.B.'s Moscow offices. The McClatchy news service uncovered records of the official certification of Kaspersky Lab by Russian military intelligence, which experts in this field call "persuasive public evidence" of the company's links to the Russian government."

Beyond the evidence of direct links between Mr. Kaspersky and the Russian government, we cannot ignore the indirect links inherent in doing business in the Russia of President Vladimir Putin, where oligarchs and tycoons have no choice but to cooperate with the Kremlin. Steve Hall, former C.I.A. station chief in Moscow, told a reporter: "These guys' families, their well-being, everything they have is in Russia." He added that he had no doubt that Kaspersky Lab "could be, if it's not already, under the control of Putin."

 

[Alaric]

That's almost as bad as the NSA recording the cell phone data of every call in North America. Almost. The Russia fixation among certain segments of society is flirting with paranoia, IMO.

 

[Audioaficionado]

I don't use KAV, but I'm sure places that have my information do and it takes only one that leaks to wreck everything. Our and EU firms could be under pressure to cooperate with their government spy agencies also. Who are you going to trust? No one apparently.

 

[ratbuddy]

The Russia fixation among certain segments of society is flirting with paranoia, IMO.

Is it really paranoia if they actually are out to get you? They absolutely are out to get us, no question about it.

 

[ihrsetrdr]

The cold war with Russia never ended, just went on 'hiatus' after the collapse of the Soviets.

The cold war part 2 continues, is closer now, but complacency has set in, after other world matters have been a distraction, these past 26 years.

 

[Alaric]

Who is out to get us? Russia is in no condition to do much besides boo from the bleachers. Russia and China can defend their countries, and that's about it. Projecting overwhelming force globally is a whole 'nother ball of wax. The second largest air force in the world is the US Navy. And the Romanian hacker who got Hillary's emails has been in prison since last year. https://www.scmagazine.com/guccifer-gets-52-months-in-us-prison/article/529459/ Russia doesn't bother me at all. Once Putin is gone his cult of personality will be replaced with someone who recognizes how much of a glass house their economy is. LOL

 

[ihrsetrdr]

did you happen to notice what happened in the U.S. presidential election? It may be a while, but investigations are under way, despite the obstruction efforts...

 

[Audioaficionado]

As much as I'd love to respond with counter arguments, we'll all have to refrain from further political discussion. Thread will remain open as long as it remains civil.

 

[DaveB]

Thank you. No more stupid politics here, either left or right. It seems that today, thanks mostly to social media, everyone is obsessed with politics and thinks they have all the answers. But in reality, none of you have any answers to anything so everyone please keep all your stupid political thoughts to yourself, any stupid ideas about technology, however, are welcome.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Might as well close this right now then because there is absolutely nothing 'technical' in the OP. It is 100% political.

 

[c627627]

This has a lot more to do with Internet, Networking, and Security than politics. I think it's important to emphasize that this is not okay if any country is doing it but nothing like this is being done automatically by security software based in the US and if it is, it would be against the US law:


"Under Russian laws and according to Kaspersky Lab's certification by the F.S.B., the company is required to assist the spy agency in its operations, and the F.S.B. can assign agency officers to work at the company. Russian law requires telecommunications service providers such as Kaspersky Lab to install communications interception equipment that allows the F.S.B. to monitor all of company's data transmissions.

When a user installs Kaspersky Lab software, the company gets an all-access pass to all applications, files and emails. And because Kaspersky's servers are in Russia, sensitive United States data is constantly cycled through a hostile country...."

 

[Alaric]

And every M$ OS has a back door or three the NSA has the key to. Along with encryption software, etc.. The U.S. administers the world wide web, so guaranteed the U.S. government has their fingers in many, many pies that aren't theirs. US companies may not be required to do what Russian companies do, but they do it anyway.

 

[Audioaficionado]

I think the EU or a body internationally based administers the internet now, but it is far from secure for the average consumer or business. I don't use KAV as primary AV and never did on any of my machines. I have used KAV rescue 10 to clean infected PCs, but stopped once it broke one of my RAID sets. If you use search engines like Google or social media sites like FB you might as well post it up on a bill board lol.

 

[demien88]

This is old news KL is doing this since first release of software. Many companies will infect your machine with bloatware and loads of crap so that they can "detect" and clean your machine,
then showe in you face "Premium". Whenever you see any odd behavior or your machine after installation of anything delete said software and scan with reliable one.
I stumbled on article while ago about same issue on wikileaks, yes of all places. There were millions of dollars in question for spreading viruses by company that "solves virus problems" practically selling viruses.

 

[BugFreak]

Pretty much every company in the world collects and/or sells our data to many buyers so what is so different about this one? The Russian government is the one potentially controlling it...Oh no! Who's to say they don't already buy the information from all the other companies selling it along with all the other "evil organizations" and companies looking to inflict harm on you and your information. People need to stop reading so much social media and fixating on some dumb news channel and find something to do.

 

[Max0r]

To be honest I'd rather be helping the Russians at this point But yea, considering every new security update in Windows rolls out a new backdoor for U.S. intelligence, and perhaps, less than coincidentally, all sorts of hackers who likely are tied to, say, Chinese intelligence, what difference does it make? Using regular software our systems are data mining and surveillance shishkabobs.



When will we finally reach the technocratic end-times where you either roll with full hardware mods or you're a matrix drone?

 

[wagex]

im a russian agent so i have to use kaspersky products on my devices so they can keep tabs on me. some might not know this but we are everwhere, in your schools, in your hospitals, even in your family tree.