US Senators Seek Military Ban on Kaspersky Lab Products Amid FBI Probe (reuters.com) 96
An anonymous reader shares a report: 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. 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, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the FBI probe. Kaspersky Lab confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that FBI agents have had "brief interactions" with some of its U.S. employees, discussions that the company described as "due diligence" chats. 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.
Re:Russia, the saga continues... (Score:5, Insightful)
Other countries have the right to not purchase US products if they are afraid that it would be used against their own personal benefit.
Countries like Russia with their 3 letter agencies, seems be near a lot missing people who seemed to happen to say something that they don't like.
While in America, we can bitch and complain about anything, including the President. Without fear of disappearing the next day.
For the most part and the US isn't at all perfect at it, the US 3 Letter Agencies are actually focused on National Security, not keeping the current political party in good standings.
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Because people in the West have it so good, relative to much of the rest of the world, I think that we have a tendency towards absurd hypercriticalness and outright hyperbole. I'm not saying the three letter agencies and their equivalents in other Western countries don't abuse their powers, and certainly the stores, for instance, of J. Edgar Hoover show us how it's important that there be oversight over the conduct of such agencies. But all in all, you're right. Imagine holding a big protest against the lea
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No, it's more like referring to black-and-white stripes as normal to hoofed mammals, and you're pointing at a zebra and saying "Hey!".
Re: Russia, the saga continues... (Score:1)
wait... (Score:5, Insightful)
the US military is using russian based software? you kidding me?
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I know. It's always seemed odd to me that anyone would use Russian anti-spy ware (from a US point of view, if I were Russian I wouldn't use US services). That's a whole lot of trust to put in somebody, much less a political adversary.
Re:wait... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:wait... (Score:5, Funny)
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No they don't. There are no specialized milspec microchips, controllers, and other ICs fabricated in China. Any company attempting to do so would be in violation of several laws that come with severe penalties.
That's why China expends the large portion of their espionage budget stealing tech from the US. US authorities arrest several Chinese "business" man a year trying to get stolen tech out of the country. They should be careful because the Russians got bent over a royally screwed pulling the same shit ba
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Yes.
U.S. senators sought ...
Posted from their Lenovo ThinkPads, no doubt.
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Heh, wait till you hear about their rocket engines...
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They write the malware and then try to collect a bounty from vendors for "discovering" it during their "research". About time they crack down on those pricks.
"We'll create the cure; we made the disease"
"Well I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
I know what you'd pay to feel"
Guilt by being Russian. (Score:5, Insightful)
That's all.
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Those chocolate people are useless.
Re:Guilt by being Russian. (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe some of that, but the difference between that and Cisco being "guilty for being American" because of NSA hijacking shipments and hacking their hardware is what?
The reality is that a Russian company is far more vulnerable to kinds of influence that would be outright illegal and American companies have the luxury of being able to open resist explicit efforts to compromise their systems and organizations in an actual judicial system.
Sure, there's all kinds of secret FISA courts and national security leverage the US government can use, but Tim Cook isn't going to the gulag for telling the FBI and NSA to bugger off. A Russian company is far more vulnerable to what really are mafia tactics.
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A Russian company is far more vulnerable to what really are mafia tactics.
Exactly.
This comes in the wake of a senior executive of Kaspersky being arrested for classified reasons. [krebsonsecurity.com] The Krebs article speculates on some reasons for the arrest.
Even assuming Putin did not want to take advantage of Kasperky's position of having a software foothold on millions of machines, the corruption in Russia makes the firm particularly vulnerable to organized cyber criminals. That reason alone is enough to not trust Kaspersky code.
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Sure, there's all kinds of secret FISA courts and national security leverage the US government can use, but Tim Cook isn't going to the gulag for telling the FBI and NSA to bugger off.
What happened to Quest CEO Joseph Nacchio would never happen to Tim Cook.
Russian software (Score:1)
I wouldn't touch that stuff with a ten foot Pole. Or even a Ukrainian.
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*sigh* Are you Finnished?
Re:Russian software (Score:4, Funny)
*sigh* Are you Finnished?
My grandmother was 100% Finnish. Instead of telling people to "Go to Hell!", she would say "Go to Russia!" :-D
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You should Czech your travel locations, it's so friggin' cold there, even in Summer nobody Swedes there. And food is scarce, even at Thanksgiving you'll stay Hungary for there will be no Turkey! If Iran this place, there's Norway it would be like this.
Better idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not just cut to the heart of the issue and impose a ban on Microsoft products?
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The communist menace [wikipedia.org] hasn't changed in the last 100 years.
Thank God for J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy. They knew how to deal with traitors.
If Kaspersky employees are traitors, give them the Rosenberg [wikipedia.org] treatment.
If we are going to have a "witch-hunt", let's reactivate the House Un-American Activities Committee [wikipedia.org] and burn the real witches in this country.
It's time to get rid of them and their fake news, for good.
Make America great again!
Too late? (Score:3)
If Kaspersky is corrupt and letting Russian malware through (and I'm not saying they are, they're probably legit) could it be a little late?
If Kaspersky were rotten and letting Russian Malware through, then that software would already be installed and hooked into the computers. Sure, getting rid of Kaspersky may help new computers not be infected, but if they were bad, then the military is already infiltrated to a degree.
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You should really stop obsessing about the Clinton's. She Lost, get over it.
It doesn't help the president to point to the person that lost and say they do it as well, all that does is prove the president is as crooked as "Crooked Hillary".
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Doing this give foreign governments and militaries the excuse they need to move away from American software assets, such as ClamAV, Windows, McAfee, etc.
Maybe they should.
Maybe China and Russia shouldn't be using American software for sensitive equipment. I'd be very surprised if there weren't some American retial software that does spy on foreign computers.
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I'm fairly sure there's US retail software that spies on everyone, foreign or not.
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Kaspersky is the one of the very few anti-virus that has been consistent that malware is malware - regardless of where it comes from (even governments) for decades now.
If the US military wants their anti-virus software from companies that are willing to backdoor their products and/or turn a blind eye to malware, they are only hurting themselves.
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Kaspersky apparently didn't detect the 2005 Sony rootkit, and I find it hard to believe that was accidental.
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It's not the letting malware through that's an issue, it's that it could include a backdoor right to ring 0 of the kernel. Anti-Virus has full root privileges on Windows, if the Russian FSB (KGB) through it's connections to Kapersky has managed to put a backdoor into the software you've just let the KGB into your network.
Don't let the con artist find out (Score:1)
If the con artist gets wind there's an attempt to stop using Russian-based software because the company might be susceptible to Russian government influence, he'll order them to use it no matter what.
Remember, this is the same guy who was explicitly warned not to bring Michael Flynn into the fold [nytimes.com] because Flynn was highly susceptible to Russian blackmail. He went ahead and did it anyway, then tried to blame Obama [businessinsider.com] when everything blew up in his face [businessinsider.com], ignoring the fact it was Obama who fired Flynn for insubor
Embrace it (Score:5, Funny)
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I am using operating system from USA, antivirus from Russia and backup program from China. This way I have achieved multiple, geographically diverse backups for all my important data. I still need to test the recovery process though.
Your USA operating system was likely written in India as an added diversity bonus.
This is the best endorsement for using Kaspersky (Score:2, Insightful)
This is the best endorsement for using Kaspersky ie. the US government is/was using them despite their being Russian. Also, lets be real...everyone already knows they are the best but this just about confirms it.
The problem is unfamiliarity with virus protection (Score:2)
What's the current line? (Score:1)
I thought the current li(n)e was that there isn't anything wrong with Russian influence. Or does that only apply to The Holy One?
Russian Influence (Score:1)
I think its a great idea to stop working with people who are under the influence of Russia.
Anyone who may be compromised by Russians, say they have a shit load of their money tied in projects with russians banks also should be under severe scrutiny. Ah yea, so that why the President is under investigation
US Senators seek military ban on Kaspersky lab (Score:1)
Who better to guard you from malware... (Score:2)
...than the people writing the malware?
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We should start writing to congressmen about Linux (Score:2)
Buzzfeed News is source (Score:2)