U.S. President Joe Biden has placed official sales sanctions on Kaspersky antivirus software due to the company’s reported ties with Russia that have raised national security concerns. As it stands, Kapsersky is banned from pushing sales or software updates to American companies and consumers with customers having till September 29 2024 to find alternative security tools.
“Today, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced a Final Determination prohibiting Kaspersky Lab, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of a Russia-based anti-virus software and cybersecurity company, from directly or indirectly providing anti-virus software and cybersecurity products or services in the United States or to U.S. persons,” stated the new announcement from the US BIS agency.
“The prohibition also applies to Kaspersky Lab, Inc.’s affiliates, subsidiaries and parent companies (together with Kaspersky Lab, Inc., “Kaspersky”).”
Most of the concerns about Kaspersky’s ties to the Russian government come from the company’s acquisition of secret security tools linked to the Equation Group, believed to have been the National Security Agency’s (NSA) cyber-operations division.
Kaspersky confirmed that their antivirus software automatically obtained NSA files after detecting potentially malicious files. It is common for antivirus vendors to upload files that are suspected of being malicious to their servers for further analysis.
The U.S. government, on the other hand, believes that the antivirus software was used by Russian spies to other insiders to scan computers worldwide to get files of interest.
The ban started with a prohibition from use within federal agencies but has now grown to a countrywide ban.
The BIS agency has set up a dedicated page describing in detail what the ban on Kaspersky means for corporate and personal consumers.
The sanctions will take effect from July 20, 2024, and Kaspersky will be banned from entering any new deals with companies based in the country. More sanctions will take effect from September 29 prohibiting the company from rolling out any future updates to its customers. From
The company responded to the ban later in a statement saying, “The decision does not affect the company’s ability to sell and promote cyber threat intelligence offerings and/or trainings in the U.S. Despite proposing a system in which the security of Kaspersky products could have been independently verified by a trusted 3rd party, Kaspersky believes that the Department of Commerce made its decision based on the present geopolitical climate and theoretical concerns, rather than on a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kaspersky’s products and services.”
“Kaspersky remains committed to protecting the world from cyberthreats. The company’s business remains resilient and strong, marked by an 11-percent growth in sales bookings in 2023. We look forward to what the future holds, and will continue to defend ourselves against actions that seek to unfairly harm our reputation and commercial interests.”
