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Best Buy Stops Selling Kaspersky Security Software (startribune.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the cease-and-desist dept.

swschrad writes: Call it a stampede, call it a business decision, but Best Buy has pulled Kaspersky internet security software from its shelves and website. Some in the U.S. government suspect Russian ties make it a suspicious product. Since all major security companies have links with each other and with government security agencies, sharing threat evidence to find counters, Kaspersky's defense seems valid. But if you want it, be prepared to buy it off their own website. Best Buy will give Kaspersky software purchasers 45 days to exchange it for free for another product if they want. Additionally, customers can also uninstall it themselves or have a Geek Squad agent do it for free within that time window.

17 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. In other news by reboot246 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Today Walmart pulled all bottles of Russian dressing from their shelves.

    1. Re:In other news by boudie2 · · Score: 2

      You mean "Freedom Dressing"?

  2. If you rely on ANY antivirus software then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you rely on ANY antivirus software then you have already lost. I'm surprised people even still run that shit. Has it even been shown that AV software does anything whatsoever? I've never seen one detect an infection. Usually I'm cleaning off infections from multiple sources that the AV completely failed to detect.

    Generally all AV software does is load your system down making it slower and less responsive while not actually protecting you from anything other than exploits from 10 years ago and often not even them.

    1. Re: If you rely on ANY antivirus software then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      A business owner I know gets tons of infected emails which Kaspersky detects (invoices, docs for your attention etc), probably because their email address is on the website. On balance, less savvy users need something more than MS Security Essentials.

    2. Re: If you rely on ANY antivirus software then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The lack of an antivirus on iOS is a concern.

      In what way exactly? A concern that iOS is not burdened with snake oil bloatware?

    3. Re: If you rely on ANY antivirus software then by Monster_user · · Score: 2

      This really needs to be upvoted. Savvy home users can likely avoid getting a virus altogether. Business users have to be more than a little savvy.

  3. security software is a JOKE by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    or, rather, a full blown scam.

    the exploits that the US SPOOKS want to keep, they keep and they tell the antivir companies NOT to report on.

    that makes all of them - 100% of them - completely untrustworthy. afterall, if their virus check lets to so-called good guys' malware thru, what if you don't think the good guys ARE good guys? and today, a lot of us don't think our own good guys are all that, well, 'good'.

    how much could the russians fuck me over? personally - me? not very much. chinese? not very much. US? a whole fucking lot!

    I have more to fear from my own so-called good guys than I ever will have to worry about from the foreign 'bad guys'.

    this black and white view has to stop. people need to learn that there are many grey levels and giving 100% trust to anyone is a mistake, in today's world.

    since the whole antivir space is highly political, I choose not to buy any of their products. if my system gets fucked, I'll reinstall. but then again, I rarely use windows anymore and almost never do I do anything on a public network with windows.

    its sad that the US vendors are buying this BS story about one antivir company being 'good' and the other being 'bad'. then again, I bet the decision is made for them, if you get my drift. yet another reason our good guys aren't quite so good anymore.

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    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    1. Re:security software is a JOKE by CODiNE · · Score: 2

      How do virus scanner companies prevent their employees from selling government zero days for tens of thousands of dollars? Where is the easily discovered whitelist of government malware hidden in AV products? Couldn't someone easily use this list to find the hashes of currently unknown covert software? As you increase the number of companies in on this conspiracy, it gets harder and harder to keep it wrapped up.

      Don't forget these companies are tracking nation state actors and writing up reports on their methods, thus bringing them greater exposure.

      Secondly. It's extremely easy to evade anti-virus software. There's plenty of packers and encoders and crypers to turn any malicious software into something that bypasses all AV. It's done everyday by pentesters.

      It seems a lot simpler to just use good OpSec and not leave copies of the tools behind. File-less attacks are all the rage these days.

      --
      Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
    2. Re: security software is a JOKE by Monster_user · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is it really that bad? I just figure that nothing has changed, other than the propaganda.

    3. Re:security software is a JOKE by Dan+East · · Score: 2

      the exploits that the US SPOOKS want to keep, they keep and they tell the antivir companies NOT to report on.

      That doesn't make sense. Exploits and malware are two separate things. Antivirus software does not plug attack vectors in the underlying OS - that's the job of the company that produces the OS. Antivirus finds and removes malware, regardless of, and unconcerned with, how that malware got onto the system.

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      Better known as 318230.
    4. Re: security software is a JOKE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nytimes? That's your *counterpoint*? To *other than propaganda*?

    5. Re:security software is a JOKE by Uberbah · · Score: 2

      There is too much risk that the Russian government, which is basically a massive criminal enterprise, has its fingers in that pie.

      Swiftboating + McCarthyism = American Exceptionalism. It's not Russia that has spent the last 15 years bombing the better part of a dozen countries for bullshit reasons, overthrown two democracies, and executed three disastrous regime change operations that have gotten a couple million people killed and millions more made into refugees.

  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  5. Best Buy... by MrKevvy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... is this the same Best Buy who is best buds with the FBI and whose "Geek Squad" warrantlessly scans every hard drive they touch looking for kiddie porn, warez, etc. and gets paid commission for what they find?

    I strongly doubt they have their customer's security interests in mind.

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    -- Insert witty one-liner here. --
  6. Re: Free Market? by Zemran · · Score: 2

    Of course they were offered that they would be left alone if they failed to recognise NSA spyware and viruses but the majority of their customers are their customers because they are the only one that does the job. Telegram got a similar offer.

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    I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
  7. Re: Why doesn't Kapersky.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Federal government is immune.

  8. Re: Free Market? by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, it's endorsed by the NSA.... by saying they don't like it.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.