US Bans Kaspersky Software \ stacker news ~security

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358 sats \ 10 comments \ @0xbitcoiner 21 Jun security

Using a Trump-era authority, the US Commerce Department has banned the sale of Kaspersky’s antivirus tools to new customers in the US, citing alleged threats to national security.

https://m.stacker.news/36276

The Russian cybersecurity software firm Kaspersky’s days of operating in the United States are now officially numbered.

The Biden administration on Thursday said it’s banning the company from selling its products to new US-based customers starting on July 20, with the company only allowed to provide software updates to existing customers through September 29. The ban—the first such action under authorities given to the Commerce Department in 2019—follows years of warnings from the US intelligence community about Kaspersky being a national security threat because Moscow could allegedly commandeer its all-seeing antivirus software to spy on its customers.

... read more at wired.com

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42 sats \ 3 replies \ @TNStacker 21 Jun

I always avoided Kaspersky, perhaps because I grew up on military bases during the Cold War. The question is why was it allowed for so long?

42 sats \ 2 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 21 Jun

I have no idea why, but I've never used it either. There could be several reasons why they haven't banned it before. Perhaps there was no law allowing them to do so, or there was a lack of evidence.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Zenul_Abidin 21 Jun

Most likely it's just because the government hadn't seriously started to act on its intelligence findings regarding it until now.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 21 Jun

But why?

37 sats \ 1 reply \ @Malachi17 21 Jun

Everyone has changed tone in this in about a month's time. Last month someone posted up Kaspersky, and my advice was to be careful with it, and nobody said much of anything about the links I supplied. Now, of course, everyone is eager to say how they "always knew that". Where were you people a month ago?

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 21 Jun

I mean I think people who knew were people involved in cybersecurity or like me worked for a place that forbid all of their products. I was surprised at how other countries had already banned it and the US wasn't at the forefront of this.

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 21 Jun

I am dying at the irony of this news coming out and getting this ad on Brave

https://m.stacker.news/36312

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 21 Jun

😂 He's aware that people are gossiping about him.

16 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 21 Jun

THe writing has been on the wall since all Kaspersky products were booted from Federal Government systems in 2017... I didn't know but the UK, Lithuania, Netherlands, Germany, and Italy have also banned it... For those that use it though it is good to see that the current users have a couple of months to replace it.

It came on my first computer and I have to say it was complete and utter trash. It would declare Netflix and YouTube viruses... I absolutely hated it and changed ASAP to something else cause I was a college kid who needed his Netflix lmao

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @emmanuelrosa 21 Jun

ANY antivirus tool can be instructed to spy on its customers.

It doesn't matter in which country the company or its customers reside.

Yes, if a US antivirus tool gets caught spying on US customers, and it wasn't ordered to do so by the USG, there would be legal ramifications. But does that really matter? Once the customer data has been stolen, its game over. There's no "undo" button for that.