Russian Antivirus Software: Kaspersky Lab, officially banned by the US Government. European Union considers the Antivirus “malicious”
US agencies are now officially prohibited from using Kaspersky Lab along with all related services. Although no concrete evidence, this started after classified hacking materials for the National Security Agency (NSA), was hacked with the help of Kaspersky Antivirus, allegedly blamed as a spyware secretly working for the Russian Secret Service.
The prohibition reaches its effective date on July. 16, 2018, after the US Feds dismissed Kaspersky Lab’s counter lawsuit against the US. The regulation first imposes itself within US Government Agencies such as Department of Defense (DoD), the General Services Administration (GSA) and NASA, but it does affect companies these agencies contracted as well.
To make things worse for Kaspersky Labs, European Union just released a legal motion, though non-binding, to restrict Kaspersky’s distribution channels. Quoting the text in motion which was published by The Register:
“Calls on the EU to perform a comprehensive review of software, IT and communications equipment and infrastructure used in the institutions in order to exclude potentially dangerous programmes and devices, and to ban the ones that have been confirmed as malicious, such as Kaspersky Lab.”
Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab released his comment, stating that:
“This decision from the European Parliament welcomes cybercrime in Europe. I do not wish to do anything to further encourage the balkanization of the internet, but I feel that the decision taken in Europe leaves me with no choice but to take definitive action. Kaspersky Lab has only ever tried to rid the world of cybercrime. We have showed time and again that we disclose cyber threats regardless of origin and author, even to our own detriment. This is a setback for the fight against cyber threat, but we remain undeterred in our mission – to save the world from Cybercrime.”
In spite of recent controversies surrounding the Russian software, and partly because there hasn’t been a single conclusive proof being court-released as of yet, the European Union maintains its belief that Kaspersky Antivirus will still be a safe software for ordinary consumers around the globe.
However, even private Corporate Businesses should take note of this occurrence and consider employing the right people to graph a detailed cost-benefit analysis if they ever decide to avail Kaspersky Lab’s services and products in the future.
