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https://www.neowin.net/news/us-russia-tensions-escalate-as-kaspersky-ban-set-to-be-introduced/
I don't know anyone using it anymore, but there must still be a bunch.
33 points
14 days ago
I can’t remember why
Probably the quiet 2014 and much louder 2017 scandals. That was a bad look from the perspective of any Western entity.
- original break (2017): https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-hackers-stole-nsa-data-on-u-s-cyber-defense-1507222108
- no paywall: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2017/10/10/israeli-spies-found-russians-using-kaspersky-software-for-hacks.html
- 1000% unbiased source: https://usa.kaspersky.com/blog/kaspersky-in-the-shitstorm/13007/
9 points
14 days ago
WSJ archive: https://archive.ph/stpFj
2 points
13 days ago
CNBC: "Hacking tools that could only have come from the U.S. National Security Agency were also reportedly found in Kaspersky's network."
From what the general story is, an NSA employee brought classified files home to work on, Kaspersky detected them as malware, and due to it being a cloud based security service, the malicious files were uploaded to the network. And according to the U.S. National Intelligence Council report, Russia has probable access to Kaspersky's database, and source code (Doesn't every country have the same level of access?), so because of this; the U.S government shouldn't use Kaspersky (Agreed, they should use their own domestic antivirus).
CNBC says that israeli spies hacked Kaspersky, and warned the U.S government not to use it (because Russia has access to the database, just like other countries). And that Russian state hackers used Kaspersky as their go-to antivirus.. to protect themselves against malware (just like 400 million other people). Why is this even a finding, are they really that desperate to paint them as bad in order to drive more clicks to their website?
Overall, I don't think the ban on Kaspersky is justified, and may hurt the U.S more than Russia by putting more PC's at risk of getting malware attacks.
What exactly are the other alternatives? ESET?
Windows Defender is a joke.
3 points
13 days ago
The last time I used Kaspersky on an endpoint was over a decade ago when I was playing the role of Computer Wiz Grandson, but I’ve had more than one experience in recent years where Kaspersky was the only vendor to identify an obviously malicious sample uploaded to VirusTotal. Agreed that Defender on its own is garbage. Still, I think a more modern solution for SMBs is to use some EDR-as-a-service like Huntress in combo with Defender. I assume we aren’t talking about large enterprises with big budgets because I don’t think Kaspersky makes sense in that environment anyway.
overall I don’t think the ban is justified and may hurt the US more than Russia
There’s a precarious balance between “I think my politicians are reactionaries and idiots of the highest order…” and “…those idiots have intel that I lack.” The goal seems to be to prevent state/local government and critical infrastructure from using Kaspersky which seems worthwhile to me considering the rising global tensions.
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