US Government Crackdown Threatens Kaspersky's American Dream (reuters.com)

Eugene Kaspersky, the CEO of the Russian cybersecurity software firm that bears his name, had a big American dream. From a report: He wanted his company to go beyond selling anti-virus software to consumers and small businesses and become a major vendor to the U.S. government -- one of the world's biggest buyers of cybersecurity tools. Kaspersky set up a U.S. subsidiary, KGSS, in Arlington, Virginia that would be focused on winning that business. He sponsored flashy conferences with high-profile speakers --including Michael Flynn, who was briefly President Donald Trump's national security adviser -- sought to join U.S. trade groups and even underwrote programming on National Public Radio. All of this was done to burnish Kaspersky's image and help it become an accepted vendor for the U.S. government despite its Russian roots, according to people familiar with the strategy. But Eugene Kaspersky was never able to overcome lingering suspicions among U.S. intelligence officials that he and his company were, or could become, pawns of Russia's spy agencies. Kaspersky "has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage efforts," the company said. Kaspersky's American ambitions were further eroded by the sharp deterioration in U.S.-Russia relations following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014, and later when U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had hacked the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Comments

Business climate

[Empiric]

But Eugene Kaspersky was never able to overcome lingering suspicions among U.S. intelligence officials that he and his company were, or could become, pawns of Russia's spy agencies.

By current political standards, if Kaspersky Antivirus detects NSA malware, that's the direct meddling hand of Putin.

Good luck.

Re: Business climate

[dunkelfalke]

Are you now seriously using a movie as your argument?
This is how propaganda works.

Re: Business climate

[Ol Olsoc]

Propaganda works by citing a Russian invasion of Crimea that never happened and an election hack that never happened either.

Thank you Boris. You have served the motherland well. Collect your Rubles on the way out the door.

US Intelligence Agencies concluded nothing

[tinkerton]

What Scott Ritter claims/shows is that first, an National Intelligence Assessment is a lot more modest than a National Intelligence Estimate, and that what was published as a National Intelligence Assessment does not qualify as such.
It's a fraud - by selected people from the intelligence community - to push conclusions that the Intelligence Agencies would not be willing to support. Ritter also discusses a lot of other irregularities that all point in the same direction: the conclusion to blame Russia for everything was devised upfront, the rest was a matter of building a case. Just like with Iraq.

http://www.theamericanconserva...

This is why they don't get the contract

[guruevi]

"has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage efforts,"
And this is why they won't win any contracts. Symantec refuses to share their source code with other governments and is at the same time one of the biggest US government contractors despite their products consistently scoring lowest detection rates.

Re:"cybersecurity software firm that bears his nam

[dunkelfalke]

His wife's surname would be Kasperskaya (or Kasperska in the original Polish). Grammatical genders are used for all nouns in most Slavic languages, even for surnames (I think only Yugoslavian languages are an exception, their surnames are always in the masculine form). Some of these languages, like Czech, don't even make an exception for non-Slavic surnames, resulting in (for example) Trump's wife being called "Melania Trumpova" (with an acute accent over the last a).

Re:Kaspersky

[Highdude702]

So, you're saying that Russia is exactly like the United States? Because in almost ANY company in the USA you can find ex military personell(which is what a lot of people who claim "employee's with a history of Kremlin involvement" mean) Does that mean that nobody around the world should hire anybody from the states?

Denying Crimea invasion

[mi]

Propaganda works by citing a Russian invasion of Crimea that never happened

During 2014, maybe, it was excusable to believe this lie.

But when, a year later, Russian TV broadcast an entire movie celebrating the invasion — and Putin's direct involvement in it — the excuse vanished. In particular, during the interview, that is part of the film, Putin says:

I ordered Minister of Defense, why hide, under the guise of reinforcing our military installations in Crimea, to transfer forces of GRU there, marines, and paratroopers. [...] Our advantage was that I was personally involved. Not because I did everything right, but because the country's top people are involved, things are easier for the operators on the ground".

The cat's been out of the bag since March 2015. Your continuing to lie about it does not help Russia — it just exposes you as an asshole.

Lie to people often enough and they eventually believe it.

Yep, this is generally true. But it will not help you here.

Re:Denying Crimea invasion

[mi]

Always a difficult issue, annexing territory with approval of the population.

Not difficult at all. First of all, how do you even know, there was an actual "approval of the population"? Residents of an occupied territory "voting" in support of the occupying power — is that really that convincing to you?

But even if a respectable proportion did sincerely want Russia to come over and "protect them". Imagine Mexico "reinforcing" Southern California and Arizona... Why? To protect the Spanish speaking people from the imminent threat of "Nazis" — like Donald Trump and Joe Arpaio... And claim "historical ownership" of the lands going back to Santa Anna.

Will you really have any difficulty deciding, whether it was an "invasion" and seek a different term? What if they promptly organize a referendum on whether to join Mexico — will you accept its results?

we can still talk to them and respect them on the international stage

No, we can't. Russia delenda est. The country — since long before Lenin — is a constant threat to liberty and peace world-wide with nothing especially valuable to justify it... There is definitely nothing to "respect" them for — not even their lousy weaponry.