U.S. bans sales of Kaspersky anti-virus software, citing ties to Russia

U.S. bans sales of Kaspersky anti-virus software, citing ties to Russia

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it will ban Kaspersky Lab from distributing its anti-virus software and cybersecurity products in the United States, pointing to national security concerns related to the Russian company.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters that the decision was made following an “extremely thorough investigation,” and that Kaspersky has “long raised national security concerns.” The United States in 2017 banned federal agencies from using those products.

“Russia has shown it has the capacity — and even more than that, the intent — to exploit Russian companies like Kaspersky to collect and weaponize the personal information of Americans, and that’s why we are compelled to take the action we are taking today,” Raimondo said.

In a statement after the announcement, Kaspersky denied it engages in such activities and said it “believes that the Department of Commerce made its decision based on the present geopolitical climate and theoretical concerns, rather than on a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kaspersky’s products and services.”

The Moscow-headquartered company provides IT security solutions to 400 million users and more than 200,000 corporate clients around the world, according to its website. On Thursday, it reported worldwide revenue of $721 million in 2023, on the back of an 11 percent growth in net sales bookings.

The ban on Kaspersky products comes into full effect Sept. 29, according to a statement from the Commerce Department. Until then, Kaspersky will be allowed to continue providing some services in the United States, including certain updates, to give U.S. consumers and businesses time to find alternatives.

Individuals or businesses that continue to use the products will not face legal penalties, department said, but assume “all the cybersecurity and associated risks of doing so.”

According to the Commerce Department, Kaspersky poses a threat for a number of reasons, including that the company is subject to Russian jurisdiction and must comply with requests for information from the Russian government, which “could lead to the exploitation of access to sensitive information” on devices in the United States.

Kaspersky also has the ability to install malicious software on U.S. customers’ computers, and its employees could transfer data from U.S. customers to Russia, where it would be accessible to the government, the agency said.

The U.S. government has restricted access to Kaspersky for years. In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security ordered federal civilian agencies to remove the software from their networks, due to concerns about links between the company and Russian state-sponsored cyberespionage activities.

The risk that the Russian government “could capitalize on access provided by Kaspersky products to compromise federal information and information systems directly implicates U.S. national security,” the department said at the time.

At the time, Kaspersky responded that it “has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage or offensive cyber efforts.”

U.S. lawmakers and leaders have intensified scrutiny of foreign-owned apps and raised concerns over threats to data privacy and security in recent years. In April, President Biden signed into law a bill that could ban TikTok, citing concern about the Chinese ownership of the popular video-sharing platform.

“When you think about national security, you may think about guns and tanks and missiles,” Raimondo said Thursday, “but the truth is increasingly, it’s about technology … and it’s about data.”