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Kaspersky Lab Accused of Close Links to FSB, Removed From USG's GSA Listing

Raevenlord

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Yesterday, Bloomberg ran a story entitled "Kaspersky Lab Has Been Working With Russian Intelligence", in which the editors said that "Emails show the security-software maker developed products for the FSB and accompanied agents on raids." Eugene Kaspersky, Kaspersky CEO, naturally responded by saying that claims about Kaspersky Lab's ties to the Kremlin are "unfounded conspiracy theories" and "total BS." Bloomberg Businessweek even goes so far as to say that Kaspersky Lab has "maintained a much closer working relationship with Russia's main intelligence agency, the FSB, than it has publicly admitted. It has developed security technology at the spy agency's behest and worked on joint projects the CEO knew would be embarrassing if made public."

In the same article, Bloomberg's editors go on to say that "The U.S. government hasn't identified any evidence connecting Kaspersky Lab to Russia's spy agencies (...) In June, FBI agents visited a number of the company's U.S. employees at their homes, asking to whom they reported and how much guidance they received from Kaspersky's Moscow headquarters. And a bill was introduced in Congress that would ban the U.S. military from using any Kaspersky products (...)", with one senator calling ties between the company and the Kremlin "very alarming."





Oleg Demidov, a consultant for researcher PIR Center in Moscow who studies Russian cyber attacks, said that "This is quite useless to find any real evidence, any real cases where Kaspersky Lab would violate their privacy policies and transfer some data from U.S. customers, from U.S. enterprise clients, to Russian intelligence or FSB."



Kaspersky Lab has already responded to Bloomberg's article, in a post titled "Kaspersky Lab response clarifying the inaccurate statements published in a Bloomberg Businessweek article on July 11, 2017.". They go point to point against Bloomberg's article, and in fact, there are some things that do call out for our attention. For example, in Bloomberg's story, the editors say that "Kaspersky Lab confirmed the emails are authentic," while in Kaspersky's response, "Kaspersky Lab never confirmed the emails the media outlet claims to have are authentic, as the media outlet refused to share them with the company for validation to protect an anonymous source." The Bloomberg report also claims that Kaspersky Lab's former chief legal officer, Igor Chekunov, "was a former policeman and KGB officer." Kaspersky responded by saying that "Reporting it this way is misleading, as Mr. Chekunov worked for the Border Service in the Soviet Union - serving obligatory military service for two years. At that time, the Border Service was a part of KGB structure." I'll let our readers make out what they want of these, and will leave sources for both the Bloomberg article and Kaspersky's response below.



The reverberations from this Bloomberg piece have already struck Kaspersky Lab, though; even as "The U.S. government hasn't identified any evidence connecting Kaspersky Lab to Russia's spy agencies (...)", Reuters reports that the US government has already removed Kaspersky Lab from the U.S. General Services Administration's, a government-approved list of vendors for contracts that cover information technology services and digital photographic equipment. Without their company on that list, Kaspersky's products are effectively barred from being used in US government settings through official channels, even though US agencies will still be able to use the company's product if they do purchase them through external channels. The move was taken "after review and careful consideration," a GSA spokeswoman said, adding that GSA's priorities "are to ensure the integrity and security of U.S. government systems and networks." A tremendous record in "review and careful consideration" timeframes, considering this decision comes only hours after the original Bloomberg article.

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I don't know any russian resident, and I know a few, who is currently using ANY software made in this retarded state. If you think outpost, dr. web etc are any different than kaspersky - think again.
 
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I don't know any russian resident, and I know a few, who is currently using ANY software made in this retarded state. If you think outpost, dr. web etc are any different than kaspersky - think again.

What is this even supposed to mean?
 

bug

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In other news: Google, M$, Dropbox, Apple, etc.. all are known NSA lapdogs.
Stop doing this.
In Russia, companies are mandated by law to store user data and share them with government agencies at will (no judge, no mandate, no nothing). So basically all those things that get Americans riled up, are legal in Russia.
 
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Garramit it. If this goes any further, I might have to rip out a deployment of Kaspersky I just finished :\.
 
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Stop doing this.
In Russia, companies are mandated by law to store user data and share them with government agencies at will (no judge, no mandate, no nothing). So basically all those things that get Americans riled up, are legal in Russia.
So basically very similar to how NSA operates in USA. Also you are forgetting even though today Russia is a "democratic" country, it was under iron curtain for most of last century so things are going to look crooked from western perspective but are just part and parcel of daily life for people living there.
 

bug

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So basically very similar to how NSA operates in USA. Also you are forgetting even though today Russia is a "democratic" country, it was under iron curtain for most of last century so things are going to look crooked from western perspective but are just part and parcel of daily life for people living there.
Wth is "very similar" between an activity being illegal in one country and legal/mandatory in another? Plus, you must be thinking FBI, NSA has no domestic authority. Whatever they did in the past has been deemed illegal and the practices have supposedly stopped.
 
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Wth is "very similar" between an activity being illegal in one country and legal/mandatory in another? Plus, you must be thinking FBI, NSA has no domestic authority. Whatever they did in the past has been deemed illegal and the practices have supposedly stopped.

However, there is a difference between US intelligence agencies acting against the law and the Russian ones keeping theirs. That is the difference. It has been proven time and time again that they have not stopped, also have you looked into US laws concerning cyber security and privacy lately? There is not much left... not to say nothing.
 
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Omg Russia! It's ok to get in bed with China though! They are so much better.
 
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old news, I treat them like that since ages.
 

bug

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However, there is a difference between US intelligence agencies acting against the law and the Russian ones keeping theirs. That is the difference. It has been proven time and time again that they have not stopped, also have you looked into US laws concerning cyber security and privacy lately? There is not much left... not to say nothing.
Yes, form can be argued to death. No state on this planet has the perfect privacy laws.
The major difference is the ability to request private data at will. Take into account the close ties between FSB and most (all?) major enterprises in Russia and suddenly you have an economic climate that's toxic to anyone FSB doesn't approve of. Or a FSB employed neighbour that can snoop into your private life at will.
 
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That's why I never use US, Russian or Chinese based Firewalls/Antiviruses. The reason why is beyond obvious.
BitDefender is still nr. 1. in the World anyways, so no harm done...
 
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Wth is "very similar" between an activity being illegal in one country and legal/mandatory in another? Plus, you must be thinking FBI, NSA has no domestic authority. Whatever they did in the past has been deemed illegal and the practices have supposedly stopped.
There's no evidence to suggest all the activities have stopped, unless you wanna believe that wannacry is the last major exploit NSA had.
 

bug

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There's no evidence to suggest all the activities have stopped, unless you wanna believe that wannacry is the last major exploit NSA had.
Again that red herring. Whether said activities have stopped or not is irrelevant*, they're still illegal in the US and legal in Russia.

*Asking for evidence that something does not happen is a classic way of doing things backwards. On this side of the iron curtain, it was common in the 50s and 60s for the prosecution to accuse you of something and then it was on you to prove that you didn't do it. This way, many good men ended up in prison, labour camps or worse. I'm not saying this because I think you're being unfair to the NSA (they've been caught red handed before, so it's reasonable to be at least suspicious), but to show why your reasoning is a little backwards.
 
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Well, isnt this a pickle. Kapersky accuses MS of some stuff, and poof instant media story with yet more "collusion" stories tied to somewhere in Russia.

Just pass the vodka...:toast:
 
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In other news: Google, M$, Dropbox, Apple, etc.. all are known NSA lapdogs.

^^
this

Stop doing this.
In Russia, companies are mandated by law to store user data and share them with government agencies at will (no judge, no mandate, no nothing). So basically all those things that get Americans riled up, are legal in Russia.

yes and in the US it is illegal and unconstitutional to have General Warrants (one of many reasons we had a revolution) but yet we created an unconstitutional unaccountable "secret" court that rubber stamps unconstitutional General Warrants.
o_O:slap::banghead:

The US Government also tells phone companies to keep all text messages in a database for easy searches....thank Supreme Court for the horribly unconstitutional "third party doctrine" to "loop hole" our natural rights.
 
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Yep, I wouldnt trust Kaspersky. Russian business doesnt have the same freedoms, or legal rights as business in the western world. There is no media/journalistic freedom either. Criticizing Putin is a dangerous game in Russia. If very powerful Russian government or spy agents come to your business asking for help, its very hard to say no. Most big business in Russia have government connections.
 
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Yep, I wouldnt trust Kaspersky. Russian business doesnt have the same freedoms, or legal rights as business in the western world. There is no media/journalistic freedom either. Criticizing Putin is a dangerous game in Russia. If very powerful Russian government or spy agents come to your business asking for help, its very hard to say no. Most big business in Russia have government connections.
ha...ha...ha ha ha.

silly rabbit...

You just think they dont do it in your country......doesn't mean they don't actually do it. As history shows.....they still do it.

Which is worse? Doing it in the open or doing it under disguise where you don't actually know what they do?
 
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ha...ha...ha ha ha.

silly rabbit...

You just think they dont do it in your country......doesn't mean they don't actually do it. As history shows.....they still do it.

Which is worse? Doing it in the open or doing it under disguise where you don't actually know what they do?

The difference is, in a country like the US there is a constitution and fundamental rights. People are free to take legal action against the government, and they are not fearful of the government like in Russia. The media is free to criticize the government without the risk of being killed. Bad publicity can lead to the removal of government at the next election, Western governments have many checks and balances.

IM not saying the west is perfect, but its a lot better than Russia, where mafia and political corruption are normal way of business.

There are a few high profile cases of western companies denying the government access to their IP. Like Apple, they would not give the government the key to unlock iphones.
 

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Politics, this is infinitely stupid.
 
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