Ask Slashdot: Should Users Uninstall Kaspersky's Antivirus Software? (slashdot.org)

First, here's the opinion of two former NSA cybersecurity analysts (via Consumer Reports): "It's a big deal," says Blake Darche, a former NSA cybersecurity analyst and the founder of the cybersecurity firm Area 1. "For any consumers or small businesses that are concerned about privacy or have sensitive information, I wouldn't recommend running Kaspersky." By its very nature antivirus software is an appealing tool for hackers who want to access remote computers, security experts say. Such software is designed to scan a computer comprehensively as it searches for malware, then send regular reports back to a company server. "One of the things people don't realize, by installing that tool you give [the software manufacturer] the right to pull any information that might be interesting," says Chris O'Rourke, another former NSA cybersecurity expert who is the CEO of cybersecurity firm Soteria.
But for that reason, Bloomberg View columnist Leonid Bershidsky suggests any anti-virus software will be targetted by nation-state actors, and argues that for most users, "non-state criminal threats are worse. That's why Interpol this week signed a new information-sharing agreement with Kaspersky despite all the revelations in the U.S. media: The international police cooperation organization deals mainly with non-state actors, including profit-seeking hackers, rather than with the warring intelligence services."

And long-time Slashdot reader freddieb is a loyal Kaspersky user who is wondering what to do, calling the software "very effective and non-intrusive." And in addition, "Numerous recent hacks have gotten my data (Equifax, and others) so I expect I have nothing else to fear except ransomware."

Share your own informed opinions in the comments. Should users uninstall Kaspersky's antivirus software?

Comments

No

[lucm]

The whole mass hysteria about Russia comes from the FUD campaign launched by Clinton to distract people from the fact that she was sending top secret emails in plain text using her own Exchange server instead of using the state department secure infrastructure.

She lost the election, can we stop this idiotic red scare? Russia is a third world country and their "state sponsored" hackers use the same kind of low quality scripts that mafiaboy used to ddos yahoo, let's get real.

Re:Of course it should be removed

[sittingnut]

says establishment tool nsa's slaves,
willing to sacrifice money and blood(usually other americans' ) in wars, propagated by willfully false nsa and ilk, that further the interests of "allies" and exploiters willing to loot other country resources for their private profit,
willing to applaud torture camps and and mass human rights violations, against american laws and constitution,
willing to allow unaccountable mass surveillance by nsa, that dictators in russia can only dream about .
etc etc.
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kaspersky software detected( as it should) nsa new malware in negligent incompetent private contractor's private computer , alerted hq, russian gov may have heard about it, kaspersky is punhsied for doing its job. btw american made software did not detect such malware.

if, after knowing the facts(as opposed to nsa propaganda), you find kaspersky is a threat, uninstall it.