THE UNITED States is putting a red flag on an anti-virus company headquartered in Moscow.
Kaspersky has dozens of international business partnerships and 400million customers worldwide – so you could unknowingly cross into their digital footprint.
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The online rivalry between the US and Russia was publicly revived in 2016 when Russia launched an online campaign designed to interfere in the presidential election.
This week, the Federal Communications Commission added Kaspersky Labs to a list of companies barred from trading in government subsidies provided by the Universal Service Fund.
A press release by the FCC described Kaspersky and select others as “unacceptable risks to US national security.”
Kaspersky’s website has directions for locating their software on your server – simply search ‘Kaspersky’ in your finder.
The measures will also be applied to two similar Chinese companies.
According to Enlyft, 48% of Kaspersky’s customers are in the US – meaning American business is a sizable portion of the company’s portfolio.
With the Ukraine war burning into its second month, Russia is becoming even more insulated from the world economy.
Kaspersky has faced regulation before – in 2017, then-President Donald Trump banned federal agencies from using their products.
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FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr was quoted saying the new measures protect the US networks “from threats posed by Chinese and Russian state-backed entities seeking to engage in espionage and otherwise harm America’s interests.”
A 2016 PCMag article gave Kaspersky’s anti-virus software a “near-perfect” score for its defense capabilities.
Kaspersky was founded in 1997 by Eugene Kaspersky – he serves as CEO to this day.
The company responded with a press release that said actions against them are “not based on any technical assessment of Kaspersky products” but “being made on political grounds.”
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