Reading this article -- Local governments keep using this software — but it might be a back door for Russia -- one comes away with a heavy suspicion that the Kaspersky Lab could be a participant in all this Russian spying that is supposed to be going on.
Maybe the company is being judged guilty by association. And maybe they are as independent from the Russian government as they claim to be.
But from the article, there's this:
The federal agency in charge of purchasing, the General Services Administration, this month removed Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab from its list of approved vendors. In doing so, the agency’s statement suggested a vulnerability exists in Kaspersky that could give the Russian government backdoor access to the systems it protects, though they offered no explanation or evidence of it. Kaspersky has strongly denied coordinating with the Russian government and has offered to cooperate with federal investigators.
Lack of evidence certainly hasn't diminished the claims that President Trump colluded with Russians to win the election. Maybe those making that claim are seeking consistency by applying the same standard to Kaspersky.
However, this seems relevant:
James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said “it's difficult, if not impossible” for a company like Kaspersky to be headquartered in Moscow “if you don't cooperate with the government and the intelligence services.”
In any event, for those of us out here in flyover country who are sufficiently frightened by the almost weekly headline about huge data breaches, it's better to be safe than sorry.
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1:23 PM 7/24/2017
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