Slashdot Mirror


Kaspersky CEO Wants End To Online Anonymity

Andorin writes "Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of well-known computer security company Kaspersky Labs, is calling for an end to the anonymity of the Internet, and for the creation of mandatory 'Internet passports' for anyone who wishes to browse the Web. Says Kaspersky, 'Everyone should and must have an identification, or internet passport ... the internet was designed not for public use, but for American scientists and the US military. Then it was introduced to the public, and it was wrong ... to introduce it in the same way.' He calls anonymity 'the Internet's biggest security vulnerability' and thinks any country that doesn't follow this regime should be 'cut off.' The EFF objects, and it's likely that they won't be the only ones."

8 of 537 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"Papers Please" by jcr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, because requiring passports to entry countries stops all terrorism and crime.

    That's the asinine thing about the ID fetish that all the apparatchiki are pushing. The 9/11 perps weren't using fake IDs, even. They had genuine passports and credit cards.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  2. Re:Guess who's security software I won't be buying by jo42 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Considering that Kaspersky grew up and lived under Soviet Russia Communist rule, his statement is surprising - unless he is part of the old boy apparatchiki network. But, yeah, he can go bugger himself sideways with a stiff wire brush.

  3. Look at his personal history by Thad+Zurich · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't buy the Wikipedia claim that Kaspersky "worked at a multi-discipline scientific research institute", unless you consider KGB's R&D organization to meet that criterion (well OK, it probably does). This appears to be a person dedicated to advancing a political agenda that does not permit dissent.

  4. Re:"Papers Please" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    They were scanned and recorded at the airport before launch.

  5. Re:"Papers Please" by fyrewulff · · Score: 3, Informative

    They were not vaporized. Clearly you didn't see the pictures submitted as evidence at the trials. (I wouldn't recommend looking at them, either)

    --
    "We need to get over this notion, that, for Apple to win... Microsoft must lose." - Steve Jobs, 1997
  6. what's wrong with the design of the Internet? by viralMeme · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you had the power to change up to three things in the world today that are related to IT security, what would they be?

    Internet design--that's enough.

    That's it? What's wrong with the design of the Internet?

    There's anonymity. Everyone should and must have an identification, or Internet passport. The Internet was designed not for public use, but for American scientists and the U.S. military. That was just a limited group of people--hundreds, or maybe thousands. Then it was introduced to the public and it was wrong...to introduce it in the same way.
    -- unquote --

    That's total BS, what's wrong with the Internet is the vast networks of compromised desktop computers co-opted to be used as botnets to provide spamming and phishing services to the criminal sector. The vast majority of which run on Microsoft Windows. And people like you making a good living out of selling 'security' solutions. If everyone on the planet switched off their office 'computer' when they went home from work, the amount of spam/malware on the Internet would drop by over a half.

    There is nothing wrong with the Internet, it performs as designed. It delivers packets to-and-from IP addresses. It doesn't know or care what's in 'em. Nor should it, that would break the design. Security should be handled at the end connections. What would cure the current smam/phishing/malware infestation is to design a desktop 'computer' that don't get infected by opening an email attachment or clicking on a URL.

    "If I were Bill Gates, I'd run another company--100 percent owned by Microsoft--that produces the antivirus under a different brand"

    It's never occured to Kaspersky to suggest that Bill Gates design an Operating System that don't rely on AV to protect. As Marcus Ranum once said enumerating badness is a bad idea since, ' the amount of Badness in the Internet began to vastly outweigh the amount of Goodness '.

    So basically because people like Kaspersky have failed at security, and want to implement an Internet Stasi (Staatssicherheit). I don't think so. There are enough people out there that'll see it don't ever happen. --

    'Kaspersky Lab UK provides the leading antivirus and spyware software'

    please by more of my bogus 'security' solutions - nuff said .. :)

  7. Re:Guess who's security software I won't be buying by BZ · · Score: 4, Informative

    Another reason to not buy his software, fwiw, is that it injects DLLs into Firefox that slow down DOM manipulation by 100x or so. And those DLLs are injected even if the antivirus software is disabled, as long as it's installed.

  8. Re:What, no part time psychoanalysts? by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the Wikipedia article on Kaspersky, it says, "Kaspersky graduated from the Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications and Computer Science, an institute co-sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Defence and the KGB[1] in 1987."

    A product of the KGB and defence ministry of the Soviet era. His views make sense then... for a KGB apparatchik. He probably backs the idea of returning Putin back to president (even if he hasn't really stopped running Russia). And he runs the company that many people are 'securing' their computers with. Think about it folks. About as smart as North American bankers offshoring the programming of their financial systems to Chinese and Indian programmers.

    --
    -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.