US Government bans Kaspersky antivirus, company responds with lawsuit

The Trump administration is not known to be hard on Russia, unless your name is Kaspersky it seems.  Last week President Donald Trump signed into law legislation which banned the use of Kaspersky’s antivirus and other applications in the US Government.

This follows a directive in September by the Department of Homeland Security ordering civilian government agencies to remove Kaspersky software from their networks within 90 days.

“The case against Kaspersky is well-documented and deeply concerning. This law is long overdue,” said Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who led calls in Congress to scrub the software from government computers. She added that the company’s software represented a “grave risk” to U.S. national security.

Kaspersky, in turn, has filed a lawsuit against the US Government in Federal Court, saying the actions were simply based on media allegations without any evidence.

“DHS has harmed Kaspersky Lab’s reputation and its commercial operations without any evidence of wrongdoing by the company,” the company’s founder, Eugene Kaspersky, said in an open letter to the Homeland Security agency published on Monday.

Kaspersky said they were fully willing for their source code to be inspected and future updates to also be scrutinized.

“Given Kaspersky Lab’s longstanding commitment to transparency, the trustworthy development of its technologies and solutions, and cooperation with governments worldwide and the IT security industry to combat cyber threats, we write to offer any information or assistance we can provide with regards to any Department investigation regarding the company, its operations, or its products,” the company said in their statement.

Kaspersky does not do a significant amount of business with the US Government, but their allegations have damaged the company’s reputation and standing worldwide, resulting in companies and retailers in USA and Europe removing their applications from computers and stock from shelves.

The company’s Total Security Suite scored joint best in a recent round-up of antivirus solutions and in their statement said regardless the action, Kaspersky Lab remains committed to continuing its mission and business of protecting customers in the United States and around the world from cyber threats by providing market-leading anti-virus software, threat intelligence and analytics.

Via Winfuture