Despite making peace with Microsoft storm clouds continue to gather for Kaspersky

Last year Kaspersky was at the giving and receiving end of two very different government complaints.

The anti-virus company last year launched an antitrust complaint against Microsoft, accusing them of favouring their own Windows Defender solution and taking unnecessary steps to disable 3rd party services, including that of Kaspersky.

Microsoft in the end settled with Kaspersky, making a number of changes which levels the playing field to accommodate them.

Coincidentally or not Kaspersky was at the receiving end of a complaint of collusion with the Russian government and has been removed from the US governments approved vendors list after concerns were raised that their software could allow the Kremlin access to the US government’s secure computer systems.

In addition, Rob Joyce, the US government’s cyber security coordinator, has admitted that the FBI had been holding briefings with companies in the US since the beginning of the year, urging them to drop Kaspersky security products on the grounds of national security.

Joyce also urged consumers to move to a different product.

The effort appears to be having an effect, with US retailer Best Buy confirming that they have removed the antivirus application from their shelves, Reuters reports, saying there were “too many unanswered questions” regarding their ties to the government.

Kaspersky has denied that their product carries any such risk, saying “Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government, and the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyber espionage efforts”.

Given the growing pace of the movement, it seems likely that the Russian anti-virus company could soon say Proshchay to the US market, making their victory against Microsoft somewhat pyrrhic.