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

Re:Of course it should be removed

[helga the viking]

Absolute FUD.

Kaspersky BENCHMARKS the shit out of Norton, McCrapee and most others reliably over longer periods of time.

Show us the code, the detail and the proof it has a backdoor or exploit. An open availability of technical explanations proving there is an exploit makes it credible. We've got them for just about everything else so this one stands at odds as an outlier which should ring alarm bells that its political and not founded.

There are two layers of logic to this:

• You take the risk Kaspersky installs malware via some backdoor because Kremlin (no proof yet still waiting). Considers your desktop machine a valid target. Under this situation assuming everyone has a ticking time bomb installed on their computer for the Kremin to manipulate is not unprecedented. Welcome to the last 20+ years of insecure by design Adobe flash products.
• You ARE ACTUALLY running something that is of state,corporate 'secret' level, controls a national grid, controls some real world system that could kill people, controls governmental sensitive emails. Then why is it running anything other than a hardened lunix BSD OS anyway?!?

Re:Of course it should be removed

[Billly Gates]

Absolute FUD.

Kaspersky BENCHMARKS the shit out of Norton, McCrapee and most others reliably over longer periods of time.

Show us the code, the detail and the proof it has a backdoor or exploit. An open availability of technical explanations proving there is an exploit makes it credible. We've got them for just about everything else so this one stands at odds as an outlier which should ring alarm bells that its political and not founded.

There are two layers of logic to this:

• You take the risk Kaspersky installs malware via some backdoor because Kremlin (no proof yet still waiting). Considers your desktop machine a valid target. Under this situation assuming everyone has a ticking time bomb installed on their computer for the Kremin to manipulate is not unprecedented. Welcome to the last 20+ years of insecure by design Adobe flash products.
• You ARE ACTUALLY running something that is of state,corporate 'secret' level, controls a national grid, controls some real world system that could kill people, controls governmental sensitive emails. Then why is it running anything other than a hardened lunix BSD OS anyway?!?

Here is the citation of proof of Kremlin involvement

Wait, the NSA wants me to?

[Opportunist]

If some reputable source would say it, I would certainly start rethinking my privacy strategy. But considering who's "recommending" this, I have to second guess whether the reason is that it keeps them from spying on me...

If I had told you 40 years ago that you can't trust one of your TLAs when they warn about Russians...