“U.S. senators sought on Wednesday to ban Moscow-based cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab’s products from use by the military because of fears the company is vulnerable to ‘Russian government influence,’ a day after the FBI interviewed several of its U.S. employees as part of a probe into its operations,” Dustin Volz and Joseph Menn report for Reuters.
“Federal Bureau of Investigation agents visited the homes of Kaspersky employees late on Tuesday in multiple U.S. cities, although no search warrants were served, according to two sources,” Volz and Menn report. “The interviews were followed on Wednesday by the release of a defense spending policy bill passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, which would prohibit the U.S. Defense Department from using Kaspersky software platforms because the company ‘might be vulnerable to Russian government influence,’ according to a summary of the legislation.”
“Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who amended the spending bill to include the Kaspersky language, said in a statement that ‘ties between Kaspersky Lab and the Kremlin are very alarming,'” Volz and Menn report. “A consensus in Congress and among Trump administration officials believed Kaspersky ‘cannot be trusted to protect critical infrastructure, particularly computer systems vital to our nation’s security,’ Shaheen said.”
“Last month, senior U.S. intelligence officials said in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that they were reviewing government use of software from Kaspersky Lab,” Volz and Menn report. “Lawmakers raised concerns that Moscow might use the firm’s products to attack American computer networks, a particularly sensitive issue given allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia hacked and leaked emails of Democratic Party political groups to interfere in the 2016 presidential election campaign. Russia denies the allegations.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote 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:
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
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jim-TIV” for the heads up.]