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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."
To be fair, Eugene Kaspersky did meet with Russian intelligence, but they only discussed adoption.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Why is our media trying so hard to start a war between the U.S. and Russia?
"His name was James Damore."
a polar bear and a regular bear,
I sexually identify as a polar bear and find this to be highly offensive. You think grizzly bears, brown bears, panda bears, water bears, etc are all "regular bears" but somehow polar bears are not "regular bears". I can't believe in this day and age that we have bigoted polar-arkoudaphobic people like you on the internet.
Really?
Last time checked, Apple refused to decrypt an iPhone for the FBI. Google, and Amazon also force the government to subpoena them for information. It's bad business to give up your customer's data, and America is capatalist.
When you protest in Russia, you get killed one way another, possibly by polonium laced water. What happens in America? At worst a civil infraction.
To illustrate my point further: when was the last time you bribed a police officer? After all the stuff I've seen, I actually like police officers now.
All of these Americans who have never visited Russia have no idea how good we have it. Obama as far as i know did not have a bank account in Panama, but both Putin and Poroshenko did.
It's disappointing to see how we've lost faith in our own country, which has spread freedom across the world, for which other coubtries thank us for having done so. I never trusted Kaspersky, and now I have a reason to.
Sure disagree with me. America sucks, right? Well when Putin surreptitiously takes over America in 2020 (next time via democratic candidate because no one is suspecting it, and that's what a troll does), I bet you'll be begging for old America: where people take pride in their jobs. Ambulances show up to your house in minutes, not hours, and you don't need to bribe people to get things you want.