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Kaspersky Lab Has Been Working With Russian Intelligence (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Internal company emails obtained by Bloomberg Businessweek show that Kaspersky Lab has maintained a much closer working relationship with Russia's main intelligence agency, the FSB, than it has publicly admitted. It has developed security technology at the spy agency's behest and worked on joint projects the CEO knew would be embarrassing if made public. The previously unreported emails, from October 2009, are from a thread between Eugene Kaspersky and senior staff. In Russian, Kaspersky outlines a project undertaken in secret a year earlier "per a big request on the Lubyanka side," a reference to the FSB offices. Kaspersky Lab confirmed the emails are authentic.
The software that the CEO was referring to had the stated purpose of protecting clients, including the Russian government, from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, but its scope went further. Kaspersky Lab would also cooperate with internet hosting companies to locate bad actors and block their attacks, while assisting with "active countermeasures," a capability so sensitive that Kaspersky advised his staff to keep it secret. In this case, Kaspersky may have been referring to something even more rare in the security world. A person familiar with the company's anti-DDoS system says it's made up of two parts. The first consists of traditional defensive techniques, including rerouting malicious traffic to servers that can harmlessly absorb it. The second part is more unusual: Kaspersky provides the FSB with real-time intelligence on the hackers' location and sends experts to accompany the FSB and Russian police when they conduct raids. That's what Kaspersky was referring to in the emails, says the person familiar with the system. They weren't just hacking the hackers; they were banging down the doors. Kaspersky Lab has issued a statement in response to Bloomberg's report. It reads in part: "Regardless of how the facts are misconstrued to fit in with a hypothetical, false theory, Kaspersky Lab, and its executives, do not have inappropriate ties with any government. The company does regularly work with governments and law enforcement agencies around the world with the sole purpose of fighting cybercrime. In the internal communications referenced within the recent article, the facts are once again either being misinterpreted or manipulated to fit the agenda of certain individuals desperately wanting there to be inappropriate ties between the company, its CEO and the Russian government, but no matter what communication they claim to have, the facts clearly remain there is no evidence because no such inappropriate ties exist."
The software that the CEO was referring to had the stated purpose of protecting clients, including the Russian government, from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, but its scope went further. Kaspersky Lab would also cooperate with internet hosting companies to locate bad actors and block their attacks, while assisting with "active countermeasures," a capability so sensitive that Kaspersky advised his staff to keep it secret. In this case, Kaspersky may have been referring to something even more rare in the security world. A person familiar with the company's anti-DDoS system says it's made up of two parts. The first consists of traditional defensive techniques, including rerouting malicious traffic to servers that can harmlessly absorb it. The second part is more unusual: Kaspersky provides the FSB with real-time intelligence on the hackers' location and sends experts to accompany the FSB and Russian police when they conduct raids. That's what Kaspersky was referring to in the emails, says the person familiar with the system. They weren't just hacking the hackers; they were banging down the doors. Kaspersky Lab has issued a statement in response to Bloomberg's report. It reads in part: "Regardless of how the facts are misconstrued to fit in with a hypothetical, false theory, Kaspersky Lab, and its executives, do not have inappropriate ties with any government. The company does regularly work with governments and law enforcement agencies around the world with the sole purpose of fighting cybercrime. In the internal communications referenced within the recent article, the facts are once again either being misinterpreted or manipulated to fit the agenda of certain individuals desperately wanting there to be inappropriate ties between the company, its CEO and the Russian government, but no matter what communication they claim to have, the facts clearly remain there is no evidence because no such inappropriate ties exist."
Not THIS crap again!
... anti-virus knocks down YOUR door.
To be fair, Eugene Kaspersky did meet with Russian intelligence, but they only discussed adoption.
You are welcome on my lawn.
What nation with a powerful central government doesn't demand indelicate acts from its major corporations?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Imagine that, a Russian company working for/with the Russians. How quaint. Much like the Cripts and Bloods working for the CIA.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
Why is our media trying so hard to start a war between the U.S. and Russia?
"His name was James Damore."
But I'm not really feeling the outrage here, at least with regard to what was reported.
#DeleteChrome
From https://www.bloomberg.com/news...
"worry U.S. national security officials "
"six U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agency chiefs were asked"
"While the U.S. government hasn’t disclosed any evidence of the ties"
"A person familiar with"
"The U.S. government hasn’t identified any evidence connecting"
Consider all the good work thats been done over the years.
Equation Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Stuxnet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Work to publish on Gauss, Regin, Flame, Red October, Duqu, Silverlight and Mask
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
why is that not an oxymoron?
I noticed last week or so "Russia this, Russia that" hysteria, rumours and manipulations appeared here, something strange, as they don't contain any credible information, even anything interesting for geek, just gossips - and it's trending in traditionally geeky website.
Slashdot was safe harbor for me for more than a decade from filthy political news and "news for housewives".
Seems its time to put dot and say bye bye?
P.S. Yes i'm russian, and i hate politics and propaganda. Peace!
Next thing you'll be telling me Facebook is a project of the CI%!*^#.NO CARRIER
In a move that literally doesn't surprise anybody... That's why you should trust anything made by foreign countries, especially China and Russia.
But his emails!
Lock Trump Jr up!
Covfefe out.
I guess everyone's forgotten all about RSA Security's cozy relationship with those friendly NSA folks. -PCP
So, it is being claimed that Kaspersky's is trying to take down cyber-criminals? If they were accused of using their anti-virus software to spy that would be a different story.
Diaf, yuppie. This is nothing more than donald TRUMP s doubleagent moves.
It allways backfires- they think u r going to fall for it but r 2 smart 2.
The Russians *are* in charge of lies & deseption, donot fall 4 it
Da Beau
I've liked Kaspersky's products, unfortunately I can no longer trust them.
and Pence in. Trump is unpredictable. He's come out in favor and against single payer health care, restrictions on work visas, tariffs and a whole host of populist ideas that the folks that actually own the media aren't too keen on. Now, it's not that they expect Trump to actually _do_ any of that (he's still one of them after all) but they don't want folks to even know a progressive agenda is a possibility. So Trump's out, Pence is in and the mega-corp status quo is maintained. Maybe with a tad more religious furor but that doesn't affect them personally. Nothing much ever does...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
and older folks are worried about politics. We're getting old enough to worry about pensions, medicare, our kid's job prospects, etc, etc. Politics affects _everything_. Like the internet? Then you better pay attention to politics. Remember, it's not just news for nerds, it's also stuff that matters. The President getting impeached and replaced with a far right, intensely religious VP? Yeah. That Matters.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Russian Intelligence? Are you mad?
Even if Kaspersky doesn't want to do anything bad, I can't imagine that Russian intelligence doesn't have someone on the inside. Just as I can't imaging the CIA or NSA doesn't have someone inside MS and Google.
I don't know why this is such a big deal - they are a Russian company, which means they are (whether they like it or not) somewhat under the influence of the Russian government. Just as (again) MS and Google are somewhat under the influence of the US government.
Stop freaking out about it already, and if you consider their products just make sure you think about the ways this could be a problem for you or not.
And frankly if Kaspersky is helping the intelligence guys kick down the doors of DOS script kiddies, more power to them. It's not like the guys who do DOS attacks are generally all that smart or useful, they're just damned annoying to the rest of us.
A thousand pounds of wood moving at 300 feet per minute. Don't get in the way.
Somebody doesn't know what the first D in DDoS stands for evidently (No, Kapersky was not identifying the hacker's location. That is not even within the realm of possibility.)
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
It isn't like the Intel McAfee division works with the CIA, NSA, and FBI amongst others on analysis of network traffic and features in their product... Which has been publicly discussed quite a bit. This is a Russian cybersecurity firm dealing with a Russian nation-state-level governmental security organization.
Find an exploit put into their products to spy on the users that can be traced to the FSB, then its news.
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
How not a fucking surprise.
In a country where any private company can be nationalized on a whim, I doubt any interaction with the government is deemed inappropriate.
If you don't trust the Russian government, don't do business with Russian companies.
All, absolutely all modern software and hardware, are based on eavesdropping. We read about entrepreneurs who built a global software empire via hard work and a talent overnight. But it just cannot be true. These all are projects which require enormous investments of several generations.
I think it is time to start building computing from scratch, from the ground, with open hardware and software, with command line tools at first. With big transparent casings, so that we can actually trace wires and components.
Getting older? Bullshit. We've always been getting older.
It's more PROPAGANDA now.
Seriously, what the fuck did you expect? That's like expecting norton not to work with the CIA.
A security company aids its own government with special solutions to keep their systems secure, as any company in any country would, but if it's a Russian company then the U.S. propaganda mill moves into high gear to make it sound like they're trying to hack the planet.
American bullshit and propaganda, as always. Kaspersky delivers a top quality suite of security product, regardless if they sell their products to one or more governments.
Stop trying to make them out as some spying company or malware producer. It won't work, and nobody buys it.
Virus Detected.
Please Select Option:
1) Quarantine
2) Clean (Delete)
3) Send FSB (Delete with Extreme Prejudice)
People hate Microsoft's antivirus software. Microsoft tries to make it hard as hell to install anyone else's antivirus because many conflict with their internal phoning home stuff. Kaspersky is the popular choice and because of Russian ties, they cleverly utilize what's been going on with Trump and Russia as a means to discredit a company that hasn't been doing anything different than any other antivirus or security company has done. The U.S. security software companies also give out the addresses of threats to police. If you want antivirus that doesn't, you will have to go the open source route with a system like Linux or antivirus like ClamAV. I think they're afraid that antivirus software is becoming too intelligent and may confuse a "normal" Microsoft running processes as a virus because of how Windows 10 and Cortona works.
Same two authors wrote an article from 2015 with the same intent.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news...
and a great retort from that 2015 article https://www.grahamcluley.com/k...
I would like to see an actual evidence based reason before I put Kaspersky on my shit list (Russia is already on it). Working with a government to track down DDoS attackers is not a low point for a security company.
...I would have posted as an Anonymous Coward.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.