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Recently, we have reported several claims (here, here, and here) made by the Russian security software manufacturer Kaspersky Lab that they have discovered 'evidence' of NSA involvement in malware. Now, Bloomberg claims that the Moscow-based computer security company has effectively been taken over by the FSB. Company founder Eugene Kaspersky was educated at a KBG-run school, which was never a secret, but the new report describes a much more current and intimate connection.
Kaspersky Lab is denying the allegations, as one might expect, and counter with the statement:
It's not as though the US has clean hands in all of this. The CIA has funded the development of security software firms like FireEye, Veracode, and Hytrust though its In-Q-Tel investment fund, and American firms have been noticeably silent when it comes to investigating suspected US state-sponsored malware.
We are unlikely to hear the truth from either side, nor should we realistically expect a confession from the NSA or the FSB. Nevertheless, it is possible that the security industries on both sides are 'guilty' of looking after their respective government's interests and what we are seeing is just another day in the world of intelligence collection and cyber-security, the world of claim and counter-claim.
[Editor's Comment: Typo fixed at 15:39 UTC]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by physicsmajor on Sunday March 22 2015, @03:40PM
I honestly don't care if they are. Actions speak louder than words. Let's rehash, shall we?
Kaspersky has been coming forth publicly with all sorts of technical malware disclosures which they found. They're shining light on the darker corners of the internet. As nobody else seems to want to do this, I'm OK with any light whatsoever. So if they preferentially target the NSA, well, we all know there's plenty of shit left to surface from that pool.
And, honestly, this would be stupid if they were. They could use this info better by co-opting or subverting the NSA's plans instead of public disclosure. Instead, they're increasing the security and knowledge of the world public.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Sunday March 22 2015, @03:47PM
Kaspersky has results: Real forensic analysis of the biggest worldwide threat to privacy and security, in the context that will most directly affect the greatest number of people around the world.
Bloomberg has dubious allegations: Insinuations and poorly sourced or verified substitutes for "evidence".
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2015, @05:00PM
Those two narratives are in no way mutually exclusive.
There is a lot of shit out there from Russia and the US (and China, and pretty much any country with a large enough budget). Kaspersky can be 100% correct in their revelations and disclosures and still be an organ of Putin's propaganda machine. When seeking truth it isn't the answers that matter so much as the questions. By choosing questions with answers that embarrass the USA they get to be 100% accurate and still achieve the goal of propaganda.
Politics is a battle of half-truths. Don't let one side's truths overshadow all the others.