Russian antivirus faces its worst moment in the country

Joe Biden’s administration has announced a complete ban on Kaspersky in the United States. He Russian antivirus software It will no longer be available for sale to individual and corporate customers on July 20. Existing users, meanwhile, will be able to receive updates until September 29.

We are talking about a measure that is channeled through the Department of Commerce and that comes after an exhaustive investigation in which the authorities promise to have considered all options. The conclusion? Kaspersky poses “undue or unacceptable” security risks to Americans.

Kaspersky’s business in the US collapses

The final resolution published a few hours ago indicates that the decision is not related to the capacity of Kaspersky products to tackle malware of the attackers, but to a series of characteristics that can be used by a foreign adversary, in this case Russia, to strategically harm the United States.

The Commerce Department says that since Kaspersky is subject to Russian jurisdiction, the company is obligated to comply with any assistance or information requested by the Kremlin. This includes, they specify, requests from the Russian Federal Security Service and intelligence agencies of the adversary country.

The investigation has generally concluded that Kaspersky software can be exploited to filter data from American clients to the Russian government. And it is an antivirus that is present in a wide range of scenarios. It is used by private computers, but also by critical infrastructure systems.

It is not clear what economic impact this measure will have on Kaspersky, but it is known that the US authorities plan to sanction those who try to sell any of the company’s products after the aforementioned deadlines, which includes “white label products”, that is. that is, marketed under other brands.

Users, for their part, will not be exposed to any type of sanction for using Kaspersky software, although they will run out of updates in three months and will no longer have the possibility of renew your licenses. The Commerce Department recommends that Americans switch to an alternative “immediately.”

Kaspersky has not been slow to respond to the measures emerging from the White House. He has said in a statement that the decision has been made “based on the current geopolitical climate and theoretical concerns” rather than having independently verified the safety of its products by trusted third parties.

Images | Paul Weaver | Kaspersky

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