Kaspersky Lab Moving Core Infrastructure To Switzerland (securityweek.com) 78
wiredmikey writes: As part of its Global Transparency Initiative, Russia-based Kaspersky Lab today announced that it will adjust its infrastructure to move a number of "core processes" from Russia to Switzerland. The security firm has faced challenges after several governments have banned Kaspersky software over security concerns, despite no hard evidence that Kaspersky has ever colluded with the Russian government. As an extension to its transparency initiative, announced in October 2017, the firm is now going further by making plans for its processes and source code to be independently supervised by a qualified third-party. To this end, it is supporting the creation of a new, non-profit "Transparency Center" able to assume this responsibility not just for itself, but for other partners and members who wish to join. Noticeably, Kaspersky Lab does not link the move specifically to the effects of the U.S. ban, but sees wider issues of global trust emerging.
Wait... (Score:3, Insightful)
You clearly don't understand economics (Score:1, Informative)
Do you really believe that the current financial system is actual capitalism? The world hasn't had real capitalism for centuries; this is the most regulated economy in the history of the world.
When connected elites use the state to benefit their operation at the expense of everyone else, that is not free market capitalism. Capitalism entails a truly free market, where no company is artificially propped up by government.
Study up:
www.BernieIsWrong.com
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And Marx's communism also happens to have never been tried for real. What the Soviet Union, China or North Korea are calling communism is in the end just a rebranded bourgeoisie that enslaved the rest of the people to be their proletariat.
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How will moving location change anything? (Score:5, Insightful)
Kaspersky is being accused of aiding the Russian government in its espionage. Being that the company makes security software which by definition needs to be run these systems normally with elevated privileges.
Despite if the claims are true or not, people are not choosing Kaspersky software due to its connection with Russia, and the Russian government does have a trend of getting involved in its companies. Companies with sensitive information are not using the software.
Moving to Switzerland doesn't seem to really fix anything, because all it will take is a request for the CEO to send or "Backup" their data to a Russian Data center, or to an 3rd party data-center that Russia may have access too.
The only way I think they would be considered safe, is if they provide the source to all the countries they are trying to sell too, have them review it, and compile it with their own tools and redistribute it to its citizens. Any data collection would need to be done by 3rd party resellers who have no direct connection to the actual company.
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The same issue happened a couple years back with Microsoft selling Windows in China IIRC. They made the source code available for inspection. I assume this is a similar initiative.
Re: How will moving location change anything? (Score:2)
It's simple enough to reject those requests if Switzerland has reasonable privacy laws. "I'd love to send the data to Moscow HQ, but I'm in Switzerland and the law does not permit me to do so."
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There are ways around that normally. Lets say there is a remote offsite backup in UK. Where their privacy may be compatible for Switzerland to send data to them, but UK Laws may allow sending data to Russia.
I am not saying UK laws will or will not allow this, I am just giving an example.
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The government has been up in arms about foreign-produced hardware for many years, to the point that they stopped buying Cisco equipment for a while. Problem is you can't really find any off-the-shelf computer components that AREN'T made in Asia somewhere. I've even heard of instances where the gov won't allow software developed with IntelliJ because they are Russian as well.
Once Kaspersky establishes itself as "not Russian" in the public eye, then the tides will change again. Most big companies have factor
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I don't disagree with your thoughtful answer.
I used Kaspersky long ago, when Windows was routinely eaten up with malware. You remember those days of Combofix and TDSSKiller and Malwarebytes.
I would install Kaspersky long enough to do the job, and it did it well. After the infections were removed, I did a deep uninstall using Revo Uninstaller, simply because, "Russia."
I had no reason to suspect Kaspersky of any evil, but I did not want a Russian company in my house.
Were I not retired from IT, I would avoid K
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Why is a russian company worse than an american, chinese or european company?
Sure, the russian government is known for spying, but so are governments of various other countries especially the us. The us is also known for having secretive courts, mass surveillance etc.
You can't trust any software which does not have publicly disclosed source code, and even then you should conduct your own audits and builds if its for a critical system. If the code is open, you may not have the skills or time to audit it, but
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Recall that I said I was retired IT.
Searching my post, there is no reference regarding trust, either of Russia or the US.
... as a far away foreign government is unlikely to have any interest in you, or influence over you.
Seriously?
In 2015, maybe.
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In related news, last fall ESET analyzed and detected variants of FinFisher, the German spy software used for the Bundestrojaner that is also sold to oppressive regimes like Egypt and Turkey.
Those anti-virus vendors are getting pesky, I guess there will be more government actions against those who don't comply in the near future.
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Well it makes sense that Kaspersky would detect state-sponsored malware from the US and Israel etc, the whole purpose of such companies is to detect malware irrespective of where it comes from and if other vendors are not identifying the same malware that could be either collusion or incompetence.
Then again, what about malware sponsored by the russian government? Are Kaspersky finding any less russian malware than other vendors? If Kaspersky are great at finding US malware but conveniently fail to detect ru
Not sure that'll help (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not sure that'll help (Score:5, Interesting)
Eugene Kaspersky still lives in Moscow and he's still an ex-KGB agent. These two facts alone make look Kaspersky highly untrustworthy considering that the Kremlin is waging e-war with the rest of the world.
No, even if true Kaspersky A/V is still the far more trustworthy choice as I'd trust Putin over the US government as far as their interest in and ability to screw with me as an individual.
You have to understand that any A/V made by companies in "Five Eyes" nations or their allies is intentionally and deliberately broken out of the box. Kaspersky A/V will happily identify/remove US/Western LEA/TLA spyware, etc. That's really what this is about.
If the US government forces me to be spied on then whenever possible I'll choose to be spied on by the US's enemies over allowing the US to do so.
Strat
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The enemy of my enemy is my friend is a better analogy.
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The enemy of my enemy is my friend is a better analogy.
Who needs a analogy, the post is perfectly understandable.
Also any state worth it's salt has a range of weapons in its armoury. Pot, kettle, black.
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Exactly what could the Russian government do to a private citizen who will likely never step foot on their soil?
Errr, attempt to poison them? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-e... [bbc.co.uk]
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Well, I kind of doubt they'll poison someone for letting them spy on them.
Most of us have nothing to do with Russia, so they have no interest in us at all. I strongly believe that I'm far too boring for the Russian (or American) governments to care about.
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Russia/Putin have zero interest in me and have no ability to toss me into PMITA prison unlike the US government who is and has for decades violated many if not most civil rights enshrined in the US Constitution.
If the US government doesn't want people running Russian software maybe they should stop trying to out-Russia Russia.
Strat
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A better analogy would be tossing your privacy to the wolf instead of the shark, assuming that you're a fish...
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If the US government forces me to be spied on then whenever possible I'll choose to be spied on by the US's enemies over allowing the US to do so.
Bitter much? So bitter that you would trust a power-crazed murdering dictator over a country that at least makes an attempt to provide some freedoms. At least the USA has a chance to change and improve. Russia will always be under the thumb of Putin and his cronies.
Both governments are murderers of innocents and oppressors of their respective populations.
The US just has better PR and people like you that lap it up.
Maybe if US tech companies lose enough business to foreign outfits because of the lack of trust they might pool enough resources to convince the US gov to back off on their police-state tendencies.
Strat
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An Israeli firewall software was also removed off the Australian buy list .
Full inspection of code at an Israeli embassy was not enough at the time.
Same old story, differential treatments.
But what is the point when Intel chips have huge unfixed hardware bugs, and video cards/DMA is another biggie.You think speculative execution is only llimited to CPU's? and not GPU's or phone modem chips?.
I bet Kaspersky gets first news on zero day exploits, with its own inhouse team capable of doing something with it. The
Switzerland? Transparent? (Score:2)
Among the folks who stash their illegally earned, stolen or just plain plundered cash in Swiss secret numbered accounts are:
Cocaine Cartel Barons, corrupt African government officials, the American mafia, crooks in the Vatican Bank, that Crown Prince of Nigeria who keeps sending me spam, the "Windows Support" guy who keeps calling me, wealthy American and German tax evaders . . . and Putin's oligarch mafia stooges.
So the place is transparent as Area 51.
Re: Bullshiiiiiiiiii (Score:2)
You mean it's a safe haven for those who do not wish to associate with world government? That sounds perfect for their purposes of signalling they are not under the control of Russia.
ISS Mission Support (Score:2)
When will ISS Mission Support move to Switzerland too? That would include crew and resupply missions too.
Unless the entire company uproots (Score:2)
Cute (Score:2)
Eugene is literally following the money...
The future (Score:2)
won't help to find any back doors. (Score:1)
While you would think Kapersky labs would have made a move away from Russia, even before the recent Russian intrigue, moving to Switzerland will not help much except for branding. The fact that Kapersky had numerous Russians employed to write code, means that if any of them were working (surreptitiously or outwardly)for the Russian Government, any code written by them is suspect.
If anybody knows about the IPSEC compromise in OpenBSD, they can understand. OpenBSD touted as one of the most secure unix operat
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As long as (Score:2)
Telling the world about and protecting computers from such efforts as:
Stuxnet, Flame, Duqu, Equation Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] , Android cyber-espionage used by 60 governments.
The problem with Switzerland is the Swiss military command structure and its closeness with the US mil.
At a staff level the US officer contact is as close to Switzerland as any military in a 5 eye nation.
The Swiss command level officers have enjoyed getting educated with the US mil for