Kaspersky Lab's tussle with the US government could have ramifications for its dealings with the private sector. A new report claims the FBI has been meeting with companies to warn them of the threat posed by the cybersecurity firm. The briefings are the latest chapter in an ongoing saga concerning the use of Kaspersky's products by government agencies. Officials claim the company is a Russian stooge that can't be trusted with protecting America's critical infrastructure. The company denies these claims -- its CEO Eugene Kaspersky has even offered up its source code in a bid to clear his firm's name.
It appears that olive branch went unnoticed. Throughout the year, the FBI has been meeting with US firms to convince them to remove Kaspersky Lab's tools from their systems, according to officials that spoke to CyberScoop. In view of the cyberattacks that crippled Ukraine's power grid in 2016, the FBI has reportedly focussed its briefings on companies in the energy sector. Although, it has also supposedly met with major tech firms too.
The law enforcement agency has apparently been sharing its threat assessment with the companies, including Kaspersky Lab's alleged deep ties with Russian intelligence. However, the meetings have reportedly yielded mixed results. Whereas firms in the energy sector have been quick to cooperate, tech giants have resisted taking swift action, claims CyberScoop.
Source: EnGadget
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 22 2017, @06:46AM
Exactly what I was thinking.
The fact is Kaspersky was willing to offer up their source code for evaluation, and the apparent grievance from our intelligence agencies is they, a Russian digital security company, offered digital security solutions for the Russian government. That's about as grievous an allegation as Starbucks offering a 'coffee solution' for the CIA, which by the way is not a joke. [independent.co.uk] And Kaspersky is currently outperforming [av-test.org] literally every single other antivirus in every department, including the avoidance of false positives. There's a reason people that are tech oriented aren't racing to follow the FBI's... advice.