The Kaspersky Lab software was suddenly banned by the US government due to accusations for collaboration with local intelligence services and possible relations with Kremlin.
According to the General Services Administration, Kaspersky Antivirus is not an approved software vendor anymore, meaning that the US federal agencies and state departments are no longer allowed to buy the Russian software.
“GSA’s priorities are to ensure the integrity and security of US government systems and networks and evaluate products and services available on our contracts using supply chain risk management processes,” the agency stated.
The concerns about Kaspersky’s collaboration with Russia have been floating around for long, however, the latest reports by the US-based media, revealed that the security company had stronger relations than initially believed with the Russian intelligence agency FSB.
In a statement, published on their official website, Kaspersky Lab denied all the above-mentioned accusations, stating that the company does not have what it described as “inappropriate” ties with any government, and it only works with agencies to fight cybercrime.
Bloomberg News claimed that they have obtained internal company emails which served as evidence of a “much closer working relationship” between Kaspersky and FSB, however, according to Kaspersky Lab, the communication was “misinterpreted or manipulated.”
“Kaspersky Lab is very public about the fact that it assists law enforcement agencies around the world with fighting cyberthreats, including those in Russia, by providing cybersecurity expertise on malware and cyberattacks,” the company states.
“When assisting in official Russian cybercrime investigations, in accordance with Russian law, we only provide technical expertise throughout the investigation to help them catch cybercriminals. Concerning raids and physically catching cybercriminals, Kaspersky Lab might ride along to examine any digital evidence found, but that is the extent of our participation, as we do not track hackers’ locations. Kaspersky Lab doesn’t provide any government agencies, nor other parties, with information on location of people and doesn’t gather ‘identifying data from customers’ computers’ because it is technically impossible.”
The statement released yesterday, claims once again that these are just false allegations, and the company is being “unjustly accused without any hard evidence”, Kaspersky Lab says.
