Ban On Kaspersky Software Exposes The Hypocrisy Of US' Internet Agenda

Tyler Durden's picture

Authored by Andrei Akulov via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

On September 18, the US Senate voted to ban the use of products from the Moscow-based cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab by the federal government, citing national security risk. The vote was included as an amendment to an annual defense policy spending bill approved by the Senate on the same day. The measure pushed forward by New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen has strong support in the House of Representatives, which also must vote on a defense spending bill. The legislation bars the use of Kaspersky Lab software in government civilian and military agencies.

On September 13, a binding directive issued by Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, ordered federal agencies to remove Kaspersky Lab products from government computers over concerns the Russia-based cybersecurity software company might be vulnerable to Russian government influence. All federal departments and agencies were given 30 days to identify any Kaspersky products in use on their networks. The departments have another 60 days to begin removal of the software. The statement says, «The department is concerned about the ties between certain Kaspersky officials and Russian intelligence and other government agencies, and requirements under Russian law that allow Russian intelligence agencies to request or compel assistance from Kaspersky and to intercept communications transiting Russian networks». The Russian law does not mention American networks, nevertheless it is used as a pretext to explain the concern.

Similar bans against US government use of Kaspersky products have been suggested before. In 2015, Bloomberg News reported that the company has «close ties to Russian spies».

According to US News, scrutiny of the company mounted in 2017, fueled by U.S. intelligence assessments and high-profile federal investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. This summer, the General Service Administration, which oversees purchasing by the federal government, removed Kaspersky from its list of approved vendors. In June, a proposal prohibiting the US military from using the company's products was reportedly included in the Senate's draft of the Department of Defense's budget rules. US intelligence leaders said earlier this year that Kaspersky Lab was already generally not allowed on military networks.

Kaspersky Lab has been producing widely lauded anti-virus software for 20 years. Today, it boasts 400 million customers around the world. Suspected of being involved in cyber espionage, the leading antivirus programs producer concluded that it was «caught in the middle of a geopolitical fight» and is being «treated unfairly even though the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage or offensive cyber efforts». Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, has repeatedly denounced the allegations against his company as false and lacking credible or public evidence. He accepted the invitation to testify before the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The testimony is scheduled on Sept. 27. Too late! Even if he proves that his company is innocent, the ban will be in force. It has been introduced without giving him a chance to speak on the issue and dissipate the fears.

Kaspersky highlighted that more than 85% of its revenue comes from outside Russia. The US measure will inevitably damage the company’s image and undermine the competitive position of the Russian company internationally. Best Buy has already said it will no longer sell software made by the Russian company.

All the decisions have been taken without giving the company a chance to openly address or mitigate the concerns. There has been no thorough investigation of its activities on US soil. No credible evidence has been presented to support the accusations. It all smacks of unfair competition. The Kaspersky Lab software is quite popular in the United States, and the company’s competitors will no doubt look to capitalize on this opportunity.

The move is part of anti-Russian hysteria that hit the United States. Kaspersky Lab has come under a politically-charged attack simply because it is Russian. Can anybody imagine Russia’s authorities saying that Apple and Microsoft were working hand in glove with the CIA and, therefore, their products were considered a security threat and should be banned?

A few months ago the authorities of New Hampshire, the state Jeanne Shaheen is from, were seriously considering a ban on Russian vodka imports and sales! Meanwhile, the US energy exporters use the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act to vie for the European energy market.

On August 14, President Trump signed a memorandum that directs US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine whether an investigation is needed into alleged unfair Chinese trade practices. The move represents the first step in a process that could allow the president to impose tariffs on Chinese imports or other punishing trade actions. The struggle for «fair trade practices» takes place against flagrant violations of international competition rules by the United States as illustrated by the unfair treatment of Kaspersky Lab.

At the same time, the US takes no measures against Microsoft, which is abusing its dominance in the PC operating system market, creating obstacles for independent software security vendors by distributing its own Defender anti-virus software with the ubiquitous Windows operating system.

The message has been sent. Hypocrisy at the core of US internet agenda is becoming untenable. It cannot continue to advocate for an open web, while at the same time using the tactics of unfair competition. The narrative that United States is the defender of free Internet appears to be dead.

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Global Douche's picture

I use Kaspersky and have no issues with it.

Eyes Opened's picture

Kaspersky probably refused to leave the back door open for deep state visitors, like Microshit does....

jaap's picture

Best sales pitch for Kaspersky ever.

SoDamnMad's picture

Microsoft doesn't have a back door. It has a "gate" wide enough for an 18 wheeler driving through in a thunderstorm rain to come through at 90 mph with a blind drunk driver.

BennyBoy's picture

 

 US based cybersecurity software companies bribed the senate and soon, the House. Its a protection racket.

 

A Nanny Moose's picture

In a nutshell.

Regulation = shortages.

pods's picture

Kind of ironic that the reason I dropped Kaspersky was the fucking Best Buy bloatware always saying my license was up. First and last time I ever bought shit from BB. Kaspersky was good, although probably not needed behind a hardware firewall. 

Dumbass US will demonize the Russians while the chinks are making every chip on the planet. They are NOT our friends. 

pods

N2OJoe's picture

I like my Kaspersky precisely because it's not captured by USGOV. Even if the Great Russian Witch Hunt of 2017 was all true, the US gov is still BY FAR the bigger threat to myself and my family.

Too bad I already have all their relevant products for my systems and don't need to buy any more.

SubjectivObject's picture

and there's ESET

used to have only Agnitum Outpost for year and years with zero issues

1777's picture

I just downloaded the Kaspersky free trial, Thanks!

;-)

PhilofOz's picture

If the USA was a person, it would be commited as a delusional paranoid schizophrenic!

Calculus99's picture

Not so, it's the Home of the Brave!

Grumpy Vermonter's picture

(((Experts))) argue that a corporation is a "person"; the USA is a corporation since 1871...need I say more?

headfake's picture

or a narcissistic control freak 

bluez's picture

The Kaspersky antivirus product has been called the most difficult to circumvent by the malware hackers.

The Russians and the Chinese are doing the same thing.

In fact they are making their own CPU chips and circuit boards.

I really don't blame any of them.

Your computer was expressly designed to be vulnerable. In many, many ways.

Your CPU master chip has an "outboard" silicon area with programmable flash memory that can access the internet directly all by itself.

Did you think otherwise?

HRClinton's picture

Check mate, Kaspersky!

"Ivana Humpalot" Czech-mated Trump, and became Mrs. "Ivana Hump Trump" and mother to his first 3 kids (Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric).

 

Cracker Pipes's picture

Christ! I just bought Kaspersky "Secure Connection" to suppliment Kaspersky "Total Security"...I am now surfing from Japan...

Grandad Grumps's picture

Thinking they want to stop people such as you from avoiding NSA data control and collection.

SoDamnMad's picture

I'm sure Equifax wasn't using Kaspersky. Bareback feels so much better, right music major?

dark fiber's picture

How about you issue a ban for M$ crap and get rid of 95% of your security problems all together.

shinobi-7's picture

Kaspersky is selling products and it therefore should not be difficult to analyses the products and to specifically say what is wrong with them. But no, they are accused because: the Russia-based cybersecurity software company might be vulnerable to Russian government influence. How can you be more vague than this? And conversely how can Kaspersky prove the absence of evidence? A well known legal impossibility. We would have thought it impossible but here is it: The US is going back to mccarthyism, full speed!

 

 

Benjamin123's picture

Bullshit. You cannot properly analize what any complex software does without source code. You dont know what the fuck you are talking about.

This is an obvious a political attack on Russia and Kaperski is just collateral damage. Nobody whos launching the accusations cares what the software does.

RedBaron616's picture

Kaspersky offered to let the NSA, etc. have the source code to analyze such data and Kaspersky himself offered to testify to Congress. So far, crickets. Much better to just destroy a company by innuendo than allow them to call the American smear campaign.

dark fiber's picture

The US is being stupid about this.  The rest of the world can accuse US software and hardware companies companies of exactly the same times ten.  In the end this will result in major losses for the US.

floosy's picture

Unlike any US based software which would never be used by the NSA or CIA to spy on people. Right?

WTFUD's picture

The f 35 joint strike fighter the most expensive military investment in the history of the world, coming in at over $1 Trillion (and counting ) still can't fly . . . . can . . it's a long shot . . . be put down to Kaspersky. LOL I knew the Russians were scuppering that deal/gig in order to sell their own jets on the market and if it wasn't for those meddling kids . . .

Deep In Vocal Euphoria's picture

ha ha ha......

 

bye bye integrty and privacy american.....google cia nsa facebook swallowing you whole.......

 

dumb cretin........i'm laughing at you

Deep In Vocal Euphoria's picture

ooh and that patriot trump...

 

ha ha ha.......

 

i'm going to create a youtube video with campaign trump quotes vs president trump quotes......

 

rub it in your fucking faces.....dumb cretin......you are nothing.....

 

stuck in the matrix motherfucker........you dont know how to unplug....you are trapped.....

Deep In Vocal Euphoria's picture

running around like little ants, totally clueless....you dont know what is what....

 

ha ha ha......

 

there is no way out american......you can't escape......

skipr's picture

I'm trying to think of a "freedom fries" name for Kaspersky.  Any suggestions?

Blue Steel 309's picture

I use Kaspersky, because I would rather the Russians have a backdoor to my computer than the CIA/NSA. I trust them not to fuck me, because they have no reason to care.

Benjamin123's picture

How do you know who has or has not a reason to fuck you?

Benjamin123's picture

Dude claims to know the russians have no reason to fuck him.

JailBanksters's picture

But if you use Windoze 10, then everything you do, watch, play, listen to on that PC is sent to Microsoft.

Microsoft then dicides to send that info to the NSA without even an Court Order.

Some you can turn off, some you can't. And these settings are well hidden.

If you bothered to read the 20 pages of the Licence Agreement, you will see, it's in there. You agreed to the conditions, You agreed to be spied on.

It's Data Collection on a Global Scale, why do you think it was Free.

Microsoft keeping you safe, from yourself.

dark fiber's picture

Wintendo 10is to be used in a Virtualbox VM with network access turned off and only for things where a Linux equivalent does not exist. 

sinbad2's picture

I used to use AVG, but it was such a memory hog I switched to Kaspersky, much better.

floosy's picture

If the Gubbermint have decided to ban it then it's a more than good enough reason for me use it.

Quantify's picture

Computers who needs them.....urrr ahhh,,, need....porn.

WTFUD's picture

The UK & US also strong-armed companies to quit advertising on RT.
The US also singled out Russian Athletes as the ONLY dopers when we know that the US are, instigating a ban.
The UK & US tried hard behind the scenes to prevent Russia from staging the World Cup of Football.

SMELL PANIC ANYONE?

Geopolitical weakness has left Uncle Sham clutching at straws, fighting against the tide, drowning in its own corruptness and decay.

Grandad Grumps's picture

I suspect Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple (and others) and US government agencies to be in league to globally spy on everyone. It would be prudent for everyone who does not want to be spied upon to not use any product from any of those companies.

Faeriedust's picture

Or if you really, truly, genuinely have absolutely nothing to hide (I'm a pagan puritan saint myself), USE THEM, and fill them up with enough flak to keep the spies too busy chasing their own tails to do anything useful ;-).

Remember: 1) mere humans can't possibly sift through all this garbage for the rare gems of actionable information, 2) computers must be programmed (which still requires fallible humans) and are full of bugs (because no program can understand colloquial conversation), and 3) all this shit COSTS a fortune, which costs will eventually sink the Ship of State if they make no other mistake, because the "needs" of intelligence are endless and can never be satisfied.

If you have something to hide, hide it.  But if you don't -- or even if you do -- go forth on the unprotected networks controlled by the spying bastards, and FLAK. 

JD59's picture

You can't use any device without  being spied on 24×7×365. 

lakecity55's picture

Medvedv: Haha, Vlad, the Yankees obviously want a war with us.
Vlad: Ha! They do not know about secret project X-23! They will be wiped out!

 

saldulilem's picture

Just change the name to Casper's Key

Yars Revenge's picture

Along with Bitdefender, Kaspersky makes the best antivirus software there is.

The American companies are jealous.

sinbad2's picture

That's the problem Kaspersky has found US Government viruses on at least 2 occasions, when American antivirus software didn't.

Whether that is because it's better, or the American antivurus companies collude with the virus creators I don't know.

RedBaron616's picture

I like Kaspersky's Total Internet Protection. Besides, I suspect perhaps the CIA and NSA don't like it because they can't force them to hand over everything they want like they can Symantec, McAfee, and other American companies. This is just a smear campaign, nothing more. I will up my subscription when it comes time.

Here's a great article on PCMag by Neil Rubenking on the Kaspersky nonsense: Should You Believe the Rumors About Kaspersky Lab?

Kefeer's picture

So when do they kick Russia out of the international Space Station programs?  

A word from the State Department: "After the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Russian relationship took on a new dimension, and contacts between our citizens expanded rapidly in number and diversity. Russians and Americans work together on a daily basis, both bilaterally and multilaterally, in a wide range of areas, including combating the threats of terrorism, nuclear arms proliferation, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, and other global challenges. Not surprisingly, there remain issues on which our two governments do not agree. Even after 200 years, our relations continue to evolve in both expected and unexpected ways." - end

 

All part of the hypocrisy we have become as people as relative truth and relative morality have replaced the fixed truth and high standards we once knew, appreciated and thrived on...biblical morality given by the Lawgiver.