Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Security United States Politics

Kaspersky CEO Says Hack Claims Cutting US Cyber Security Sales (reuters.com) 69

Eugene Kaspersky told news agency Reuters on Friday that his cyber security firm that bears his name would see a 'single digit' drop in U.S. sales this year as a result of suspicions about his company's ties to the Russian government, but global revenue should still increase. From a report: By turns frustrated and defiant in an 80-minute interview in his Moscow office, the founder and head of the embattled antivirus software maker denounced what he called an "information war" against his company, repeatedly asserting that "we've done nothing wrong." Anton Shingarev, Kaspersky Lab's vice president of public affairs, also told Reuters during the interview the company had abandoned efforts to sell its services to the U.S. government and that it would wind down its Washington-area subsidiary, KGSS. Kaspersky Lab has become a lightning rod in recent months as it has faced allegations by the U.S. government that its antivirus products can be used by Russian spies to conduct cyber espionage. Office Depot, Staples and Best Buy have stopped selling Kaspersky's security suite in their stores.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Kaspersky CEO Says Hack Claims Cutting US Cyber Security Sales

Comments Filter:
  • Here's how Kaspersky could get out of this:

    1) change name to "Uranium Two"
    2) donate to the Clinton Global Initiative
    3) ??? (impeach Trump?)
    4) profit!
    • Just change the company name to "Kaspersky Blockchain" and watch the bitcoins roll in.
    • Harm reduction (Score:3, Insightful)

      by TheMeuge ( 645043 )

      Considering that independent testing has generally placed them at or near the top of world antivirus companies and their software does so without being slow or intrusive, I think it may actually be safer to place your trust in them, being a US citizen, than to trust the American companies that are beholden to the NSA and the like. Frankly, there is nothing useful that Russia can gain from a backdoor to my computer. On the other hand, I fully expect NSA to be compiling list of undesirable persons based on ra

    • I'd buy a copy of Kaspersky and not install it if it's a ticket to getting the pussy-grabber and his insane cronies out of office.

  • The company is either corrupt (complicit in the hacking) or incompetent (unable to protect their own stuff).

    Both are extremely good reasons not to use their software.

    • by Calydor ( 739835 )

      Yes, assuming it's true.

      What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

      • by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27, 2017 @04:01PM (#55447037)

        Innocent until proven guilty is for courts not software acquisition.

        • "Innocent until proven guilty" is a USA concept.

          Kaspersky is located in Russia, so they have no standing in that regard.

      • by sims 2 ( 994794 )

        Well considering that they have admitted that their software did actually collect said files in 2015 and never announced that their network had been breached (by both russia and Israel) they are at least one of the two.
        They must either be untrustworthy (if they knew and said nothing) or incompetent (they didn't know two diffrent nation states were running about their networks.)

        Both of which should be unacceptable for a security company.

    • The company is either corrupt (complicit in the hacking) or incompetent (unable to protect their own stuff).

      Gee, that's what I would say about the NSA.

      Both are extremely good reasons not to use their software.

      With the NSA software . . . you do not have a choice:

      In Putinist Amerika, NSA software uses you!

      At any rate, the NSA will be happy to see them gone. One less company to worry about that will discover NSA Hanky Panky.

      • by sims 2 ( 994794 )

        Most people get the choice of what av they run (if at all).

        What the American public thinks of the NSA doesn't matter we have no meaningful way to express our opinions on the matter and even if we could its unlikely most would even care.

        After all you can't fight safety people will vote for even the illusion of safety even when it can be shown it vastly to their own detriment.

    • I used the software for years at a law firm as a first line of mitigation for virus infection on desktops.

      It worked great.

      Then, I'd do a deep uninstall it using Revo Uninstaller because ... Russia.

      That was years ago and virus no longer presents a hazard.

      Nowadays, the bad stuff is ransomware.

    • The company is either corrupt (complicit in the hacking) or incompetent (unable to protect their own stuff).

      Or more likely, every major internet company is infiltrated by spies working for various powers.

      I seriously doubt an antivirus company can detect new NSA malware without many government being noticed within hours.

      • by sims 2 ( 994794 )

        Dude there are entire companies that will scan files for you without reporting them to check if any AV can detect your leet new ransomware virus. I can't imagine that the NSA wouldn't have a similar setup to see if any of their tools have been compromised.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Assuming you're a gullable idiot and no one likes you because you're funny looking, you're a gullable idiot and no one likes you because you're funny looking. Can't argue with that logic, sport. But maybe we can do better by actually having, you know, a fucking thought in our heads.

      The accusation that Kaspersky antivirus software is a spy vector for Russian intelligence, and that Israeli hackers infitrated this vector, is entirely bullshit, on it's face, and any one that knows machines running a Microsoft O

  • They stole the election, and the presidency. Stole all the secrets from NSA.
  • I am astonished that people actually bought security software from a Russian company in the first place. They could be 100% honest, but who knows? Their software is completely closed source. Why are you trusting your data to closed source software company?
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Americans are getting ready to flush this turd down the bowl

  • I work in a retail store that just pulled it, and I never heard of a single consumer complaining simply because we stocked it. I suppose there's a small chance we pulled it in order to pay obeisance to whinging douchebags who weren't even real customers, but I think there's a better explanation.

    Kaspersky was bad for profits. The biggest reason is we'd rather promote our own antivirus guarantee service, and less competition means more money. Second, people who bought Kaspersky kept bumping into Windows 10 er

  • "Office Depot, Staples and Best Buy have stopped selling Kaspersky's security suite in their stores."

    If you're going to any of those places expecting to get security software for your computer, you should probably just find a Warez site and post all your passwords.

    Saves problems all 'round, and gives the lowest of the low level script kiddies a reason to live.

  • So you lost what, five sales? Six?

  • ... protect its product(s) from bad press.

    That's on them.

    I'm not the least interested in the welfare of a business located in Russia.

  • ....Krapersky still sucks. It is a performance killer and sends massive amounts of data to dubious servers.

Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book.

Working...