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The US administration has banned Kaspersky, a Russian cybersecurity company catering to individuals and companies, from operating within the United States starting Sept. 29, 2024.
Kaspersky, a multi-national headquartered in Moscow, has been around for more than two decades, but after Russia invaded Ukraine, the company’s presence in NATO countries and others supporting Ukraine has increasingly posed a problem.
The reason for banning Kaspersky security software, according to US officials, is that the company can’t be trusted to resist pressure from the Russian government should it choose to weaponize the personal information gathered by the firm worldwide.
“Russia has shown it has the capacity and … the intent to exploit Russian companies like Kaspersky to collect and weaponize the personal information of Americans and that is why we are compelled to take the action that we are taking today,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, according to Reuters.
This move is not surprising because use of Kaspersky on devices within the US federal government has been banned since 2017. The US cited the company’s ties with Russian intelligence for the ban back then, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine only strengthened the US resolve when it came to banning the company.
In fact, Kaspersky was accused in 2017 of having stolen US data for years. In one situation, the Russian company allegedly stole information from the PC of an NSA contractor that had its security solution installed.
Senator Mark Warner, chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, agreed with the nationwide ban.
“We would never give an adversarial nation the keys to our networks or devices, so it’s crazy to think that we would continue to allow Russian software with the deepest possible device access to be sold to Americans,” the senator said.
According to Reuters, the ban will include two Russian and one UK holding companies for allegedly cooperating with Russian military intelligence.
The ban means Kaspersky will no longer be able to sell its products in the US as of Sept. 29 this year and can’t update the software of existing customers. Anyone using Kaspersky software will soon lose the ability to keep their software up to date, leaving devices much more vulnerable to security incidents. Moreover, the Russian company won’t be able to sell its white-labeled products.
Consumers and businesses in the US have been advised to immediately look for Kaspersky alternatives to ensure their systems and data are protected after the September 29 deadline.
Kaspersky faces bans worldwide
The US is not the only country to take such a drastic measure. In 2022, the German Federal Office for Information Security urged citizens to stop using the software and replace it with something else. The same year, Italy banned the use of Kaspersky software in the public sector.
The same goes for Lithuania, which has banned Kaspersky software since 2017, and the Netherlands, which is already phasing out the software. Romania prohibited the use of the Russian software in the public sector in 2022.
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