
Like US-sanctioned enterprise infosec firm Positive Technology, Kaspersky tried to soothe fears in the West by moving its European base of operations to Switzerland in 2018. NSA dev in the clink for 5.5 years after letting Kaspersky, allegedly Russia slurp US exploits.



Kaspersky is a private global cybersecurity company and, as a private company, does not have any ties to the Russian or any other government." Instead it said the decision is politically motivated.Ī company spokesman told The Register: "We believe this decision is not based on a technical assessment of Kaspersky products – that we continuously advocated for with the BSI and across Europe – but instead is being made on political grounds. Kaspersky, a stalwart of the consumer antivirus scene since its foundation in the late 1990s, denied – unsurprisingly – that it poses a risk to Westerners. If there are doubts about the reliability of the manufacturer, virus protection software poses a particular risk for the IT infrastructure to be protected. Therefore, trust in the reliability and self-protection of a manufacturer as well as his authentic ability to act is crucial for the safe use of such systems.

Antivirus software, including the associated real-time capable cloud services, has extensive system authorizations and, due to the system (at least for updates), must maintain a permanent, encrypted and non-verifiable connection to the manufacturer's servers.
