News: 1721320145

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Kaspersky challenges US government to put up or shut up about Kremlin ties

(2024/07/18)


Kaspersky has hit back after the US government banned its products – by proposing an independent verification that its software is above board and not backdoored by the Kremlin.

The embattled Russian antivirus maker pledged to comply with the US Department of Commerce's blockade against its products, but also maintained that the Feds' June decision to [1]ban its products in America is purely political.

"To respond to the US authorities' concerns, the company has proposed a comprehensive assessment framework providing for the verification of its solutions, database updates, threat detection rules by an independent trusted reviewer," Kaspersky [2]said today.

[3]

The infosec shop is referring to its [4]Global Transparency Initiative , which Kaspersky rolled out in 2017 in response to an earlier [5]ban of its tech on US government systems.

[6]

[7]

The US Department of Homeland Security issued the edict to ban Kaspersky on government networks, citing the developer's alleged ties to the Kremlin. In response, the software maker offered to open up its source code for third-party review.

The Register has asked Kaspersky for more information about the framework to verify its products and threat-detection rules. We also asked the Commerce Department for more detail.

[8]

Today's statement indicates that the Feds didn't look favorably on this proposal.

"Kaspersky maintains that the US Department of Commerce decision was based on the geopolitical climate rather than on the evaluation of the integrity of the company's solutions and deprives US users and companies of best in class protection," the statement said.

[9]Kaspersky gives US customers six months of free updates as a parting gift

[10]Kaspersky culls staff, closes doors in US amid Biden's ban

[11]From network security to nyet work in perpetuity: What's up with the Kaspersky US ban?

[12]Uncle Sam sanctions Kaspersky's top bosses – but not Mr K himself

The firm also said it has stopped sales of new contracts of its antivirus software and security products in the US ahead of the Commerce Department's July 20 end-date. Earlier in the week, Kaspersky confirmed that it would "gradually wind down" its US operations and eliminate fewer than 50 positions.

Plus, in today's statement, it acknowledged that Kaspersky will be prohibited from providing antivirus signature updates and codebase updates to US consumers and businesses after September 29.

"Kaspersky's informational or educational products and services such as Kaspersky Threat Intelligence and Kaspersky Cybersecurity Training, as well as Kaspersky consulting or advisory services (including SOC Consulting, Security Consulting, Ask the Analyst, and Incident Response) will continue to be available in the US market," according to the statement.

[13]

"Kaspersky remains strong in its ongoing support for its customers and partners worldwide providing leading cybersecurity solutions," it continued. "The company stays dedicated to delivering top-tier cybersecurity technologies, recognized for their excellence through numerous independent awards and third-party audits. Kaspersky will continue to deliver on its mission of building a safer world."

Yesterday, Russian biz said it would give US customers six months of security updates for free as a [14]parting gift . ®

Get our [15]Tech Resources



[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/us_bans_kaspersky_software/

[2] https://usa.kaspersky.com/about/press-releases/2024_kaspersky-statement-on-compliance-in-the-us-following-icts-final-determination

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZpmQd9vHvpsNYXWBs8073QAAAoo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2017/10/23/kaspersky_source_code_review/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2017/09/13/homeland_security_bans_kaspersky_products/

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZpmQd9vHvpsNYXWBs8073QAAAoo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZpmQd9vHvpsNYXWBs8073QAAAoo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZpmQd9vHvpsNYXWBs8073QAAAoo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/17/kaspersky_goodbye_gift/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/15/kasperky_us_operations/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/22/kaspersky_kettle/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/kaspersky_sanctions_ceo/

[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZpmQd9vHvpsNYXWBs8073QAAAoo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/17/kaspersky_goodbye_gift/

[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



ITMA

Never mind the alleged Kremlin links - we dumped Kaspersky years ago because it became very buggy bloatware.

Who

amajadedcynicaloldfart

@ITMA

Is "we"?

Re: Who @amajadedcynicaloldfart

Sandtitz

Why do you need to know?

Who is amajadedcynicaloldfart ? For what organisation do you work for?

Re: Who

Alien Doctor 1.1

What an odd question, it's either the commentard and family, or whatever business he works for. Stop trying to read agendas into innocent comments.

If I wanted to, I could easily suggest that the unfornately useless attempt to humanely put down an orange toned animal was staged by the repugnant party to boost his/its success in the forthcoming "will the world still be here in 5 years" election.

I rue the miss, especially that others are now sporting bandages on their right ears.

Re: Who

Anonymous Coward

"I rue the miss"

So you are advocating political violence?

Re: Who

Alien Doctor 1.1

The Orange Dump is no politician, he's a ridiculous reality tv so-called star. He is obnoxious and too much of a moron to help western democracy survive.

Re: Who

t245t

> The Orange Dump is no politician, he's a ridiculous reality tv so-called star. He is obnoxious and too much of a moron to help western democracy survive.

And he won't start any foreign wars :(

Pascal Monett

Maybe not, but he's certainly capable of starting one at home.

Re: Who

Anonymous Coward

I believe what he is trying to say is "If you don't fight, you aren't going to have a county"

anyone virtue signaling about "Political violence" at this stage is a hypocrite.

Re: Who

Anonymous Coward

> So you are advocating political violence?

Well given the orange one’s well reported advocacy of political violence… it is fitting he is a target for political violence…

Re: Who

heyrick

" I rue the miss "

I don't, because advocating killing arseholes is a shitty strategy when everybody is an arsehole to somebody in this ridiculously partisan world.

I like to delude myself to thinking that one day the orange one will view the world from between vertical bars, but given as how the Supremes aren't even bothering to hide their corruption any more (and seem to be breaking America for the lulz, or have I missed something subtle?), I don't expect justice will ever be served. Instead, they've all but anointed the new king.

Plus, the problem runs far deeper than one man. He has an army of enablers and sycophants. Wasting Trump won't fix that, it'll just make room for some other megalomaniac creep to step up.

" especially that others are now sporting bandages on their right ears. "

Yeah... that is... bizarre. I'm rather lost for words.

Above board and not backdoored software

Anonymous Coward

> Kaspersky has hit back after the US government banned its products – by proposing an independent verification that its software is above board and not backdoored by the Kremlin.

They can't do that as US AV software would be subject to similar scrutiny.

Re: Above board and not backdoored software

Pascal Monett

Why ? Who said so ?

Kaspersky is proposing an independant verification of his software, not of all AV software.

Personally, I'm all for it.

Re: Above board and not backdoored software

heyrick

Fair's fair.

Example Kaspersky in fine detail.

Then examine its main contemporary.

After all, don't "they" always try to tell you if you have nothing to hide.....

Re: Above board and not backdoored software

Roland6

The unanswered question is whether Kaspersky Lab UK Ltd; the owner of Kaspersky North America and effectively the owner of the Global Transparency Initiative, is being fully demerged from AO Kaspersky Lab, with the right to develop and sell the Kaspersky product and run the GTI centre in Switzerland…

Anonymous Coward

They don't need back doors....

anyone who has used such cloud SHITE as Bitdefender and Kaspersky

KNOW that they upload FULL PATHS and Hashes of files....

from the full path you get the users name....

location

os and from the hash you get to search the users computer for any file you are looking for.

There is so much meta data on teh user ,even without backdoors....

simply by watching triggers , i can figure out most of the sexual interests of any user using bit-defender/Kaspersky,

There is MORE than enough blackmail material just from a simple scan of a users computer.

The Assassin moved quietly from roof to roof until he was well away from
the excitement around the Watch House. His movements could be called
cat-like, except that he did not stop to spray urine up against things.
-- Terry Pratchett, "Night Watch"