Last week, acting U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke issued a directive banning federal agencies from using computer software products supplied by Kaspersky Lab because of concerns about the company’s ties to the Kremlin and Russian spy operations.
The directive affords the agencies a 30 day window to determine whether they are using any Kaspersky products. All Kaspersky software must then be removed from computer systems — within 90 days.
This can potentially be an issue for not only U.S. and other foreign governments but hundreds of millions of users globally. Kaspersky is currently the ninth best-selling internet security software in the world.
Rightfully adding to the concerns of many is the fact that several weeks ago, Trump Cybersecurity Coordinator Rob Joyce stated that he felt that there was a, "connection between Kaspersky and Russian intelligence," Joyce also claimed that the U.S. is lacking some 300,000 cybersecurity experts needed to defend the country.
Joyce was also asked during an interview with CBS News’ Jeff Pegues if he would recommend the use of Kaspersky products to his friends and family. Joyce replied, "I would not," he continued, "I worry that as a nation state Russia really hasn't done the right things for this country and they have a lot of control and latitude over the information that goes to companies in Russia. So I worry about that."
The founder of Kaspersky Labs, Eugene Kaspersky, is a Moscow native who has previously worked for the Russian military. He received his education at a KGB-sponsored technical college.
Kaspersky's critics over the years have accused him of using his company’s products to spy on users for Russian intelligence. Russian law can require a company like Kaspersky to turn over its records if they deem those records to be of interest to Russian intelligence.
Russian telecommunications companies, for example, are required by Russian Law to cooperate with the government's military and spy operations if asked.
China had already made the decision to ban Kaspersky’s products from its government computer systems before the US did. China’s largest newspaper, the state-controlled People’s Daily, reported that the government agency responsible for software procurement for state networks, has barred Kaspersky Lab from its list of approved software vendors.
It can be argued that the Russian government can easily use legal channels to secretly force Kaspersky to turn over its data on American or other foreign or domestic users as a supplementation to its spy programs. With this being the case, we have to ask some very important questions.
How did our municipal, state and federal governments make such an irresponsible choice to use the Russian software for so long? Why was China faster to detect a potential major conflict of national security interest than we were? Can the information from the more than 400 million users of Kaspersky products worldwide potentially be compromised?
With the research and development for high end security software carrying such an extraordinary cost, many are skeptical as to whether the larger anti-virus software companies like Russia’s Kaspersky and Dr. Web, China’s QUO360 and Czechoslovakia’s Eset are funded with state money.
The potential intelligence advantages which can be gained by bad actors should be more than enough for the Trump administration and private Americans to rethink their cybersecurity strategies.
Julio Rivera is an entrepreneur, small business consultant and political activist. He contributes to RightWingNews.com and NewsNinja2012.com, and had previously covered boxing and baseball for the now defunct "The Urban News" in his native Paterson, N.J. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.