“The FBI has admitted that it is actively discouraging businesses to not use security products from Kaspersky Lab,” Anthony Spadafora reports for BetaNews. “Rob Joyce, the US government’s Cyber Security Coordinator, said that the agency has been actively trying to convince companies in the private sector to no longer use products from the Russian security firm following a number of recent concerns.”
“The FBI previously raised issues over Kaspersky Lab’s ties with the Kremlin, as it believes that data collected by the company’s popular antivirus program is being sent directly to the Russian government,” Spadafora reports. “During a recent interview, Joyce once again highlighted the fact that the Russia-based security company can no longer be trusted by businesses and even by consumers, saying: ‘I don’t use Kaspersky Lab products. I worry that as a nation state Russia really hasn’t done the right things for this country and they have a lot of control and latitude over the information that goes to companies in Russia. So I worry about that.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote of Kaspersky Lab back in March 2015:
Things that make you go “hmmm.” Yet another reason why we’re glad we use Macs!
And, as we wrote back in April 2010:
Eugene Kaspersky is a transparent, self-serving, disingenuous leech who seems to consider tech users to be gullible fools.
SEE ALSO:
U.S. Senators seek military ban on Kaspersky Lab products amid FBI probe – June 29, 2017
Kaspersky Lab has close ties to Russian spies – Bloomberg News – March 19, 2015
Kaspersky Lab Director: Over 98% of mobile malware targets Android because it’s much, much easier to exploit than iOS – January 15, 2015
Kaspersky: If Apple doesn’t open up iPhone (to malware), it will cease to exist in five years – April 29, 2010
The quotation is awful. “discouraging businesses to not use security products from Kaspersky Lab”. “Discouraging to use” is shorter and grammatically correct. Regardless, the intended meaning I strongly support.
Another point is that the quote does not have to do specifically with Kaspersky. It is about all anti-virus software.
Discouraging from using
I have a close relative using Kaspersky for anti-virus protection on her MacBook Pro. There is an un-installer within the app – but I for one do not trust it to un-install completely without leaving something nefarious behind. Any advice would be appreciated.
Wipe and start anew.
With time and curiosity you can probably find the bits and pieces that automatically run in the OS at boot. But it’s not wise to play in the Library folders without some guidance at hand.
There are some dedicated uninstallation programs around. Some depend upon their running when you performed the installation in order for them to monitor what goes where. Some do not. I tend to avoid them as they can have their own problems.
Pretty sure this is old news… I remember hearing warnings from the FBI a couple of weeks ago.
It is. Chalk it up to the August Effect. You gotta turn in something while you’re on the beach!
Better advice would be that US companies should not use computer operating systems which are so dependent on third party anti-viral software.
That would be about 90% of US companies.
Isn’t Kaspersky the company that keeps discovering that the U.S. Government is behind many high tech covert infiltrations of industrial sectors? If so, this is suspicious to me…
The FBI also signed on to the analysis – not proof – that Russia helped Trump win.
So I say bullsh•t to this pseudo-Red scare directive which is the core motivation behind this string of anti-Putin/Russia articles.
And it’s very likely that this directive is not merely innocently written by some tech geek, but is inspired by that loosely-federated group consisting of the anti-Sanders DNC, spy agencies led by Clapper’s NSA, CIA, and Wall St. who are still chagrinned and dismayed that Hillary, its candidate, lost.
If that group thinks something is bad, then it’s more than likely that it’s merely a competitor that is good for us.
Next Step:
Hey #MyStupidGovernment ! ! !
Stop Using Windows ! ! !
DUH ! ! !
Muh Russia
How can the stole the data ?? When you have a better technology to read each and every packets