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Kaspersky has been forced to again deny allegations that it aids Russian intelligence services. The security company has denied fresh allegations after the FBI opened up an investigation, according to a news report on US TV channel ABC News.
A spokesman for Kaspersky said: “As a private company, Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government, and the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage efforts.
“For 20 years, Kaspersky Lab has been focused on protecting people and organizations from cyberthreats, and its headquarters’ location doesn’t change that mission–just as a U.S.-based cybersecurity company doesn’t allow access or send any sensitive data from its products to the U.S. government, Kaspersky Lab products also do not allow any access or provide any private data to any country’s government.”
Kaspersky’s Russian origin combined with founder Eugene Kaspersky’s military past has resulted in the company being accused of colluding with Russian intelligence agencies. Eugene Kaspersky attended a KGB-sponsored college and has since worked with the Russian military.
One of the allegations accuses Kaspersky of offloading a number of executives in 2015 and replacing them with staff that are friendly with the Russian government. The assumption is that the new executives could use the information provided by the security firm’s 400 million users to aid Russian intelligence.
However, Kaspersky denies that is possible, saying that all data is made anonymous and that users can disable the telemetry reporting at any time. In fact, Kaspersky claims to have reported incidents of Russian espionage to the US authorities on a number of occasions in the past. “During the last 10 years, Kaspersky Lab has discovered and publicly reported on multiple Russian-speaking cyber espionage campaigns, which is most than any other U.S.-based company,” a spokesman said. “Due to the company’s unique and global customer mix, Kaspersky Lab will continue demonstrating its leadership by finding and reporting global cyberthreat campaigns, regardless of the origin or intention.
“As a private company, Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government, and the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage efforts. The company has a 20 year history in the IT security industry of always abiding by the highest ethical business practices, and Kaspersky Lab believes it is completely unacceptable that the company is being unjustly accused without any hard evidence to back up these false allegations. Kaspersky Lab is available to assist all concerned government organizations with any ongoing investigations, and the company ardently believes a deeper examination of Kaspersky Lab will confirm that these allegations are unfounded.”
