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About 15 Percent of US Agencies Detected Kaspersky Software on Networks (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

Dustin Volz, reporting for Reuters: About 15 percent of U.S. federal agencies have reported some trace of Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab software on their systems, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told Congress on Tuesday. Jeanette Manfra, assistant secretary for cyber security at DHS, told a U.S. House of Representatives panel that 94 percent of agencies had responded to a directive ordering them to survey their networks to identify any use of Kaspersky Lab products and to remove them. But Manfra said DHS did "not currently have conclusive evidence" that any networks had been breached due to their use of Kaspersky Lab software. The administration of President Donald Trump ordered civilian U.S. agencies in September to remove Kaspersky Lab from their networks, amid worries the antivirus firm was vulnerable to Kremlin influence and that using its anti-virus software could jeopardize national security.

5 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. I reject this anti-Kaspersky sentiment by mysidia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, but all evidence shown so far seems to indicate Kaspersky software works just fine, Not caused system compromises, AND
    any case where Kaspersky "exposed" or "leaked" secret files were Kaspersky working like it's supposed to --- not Kaspersky violating any privacy expectations; you
    just don't get to run "secret" potentially-malicious programs on desktop computers without the possibility of malware samples of your suspicious code going to the AV vendor for analysis.... I can accept that, and I think most people SHOULD accept that with zero objections.

    1. Re:I reject this anti-Kaspersky sentiment by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      From what I've read, this whole thing got started when an NSA contractor downloaded files to a personal computer that also had Kaspersky AV running. Kaspersky did its job and identified the malware the contractor was working on and sent the files away for analysis. There have been allegations that Kaspersky was scanning for files containing certain words, but I haven't seen any evidence of that put forward.

      It might make sense for Federal computers not to run any software that hasn't been vetted, but what about the hardware the software is running on? Why do these agencies that don't trust Kaspersky trust their Chinese made computers and phones?

  2. Re:Time to start using Karspersky by postbigbang · · Score: 2

    Disinformation. Nice try.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  3. Re:Review by Independent Party by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I can tell you've never tried this using a modern build system...

    Let me fill you in on a nasty little secret, where the code may be exactly the same, the compiled and linked object may differ between builds due to time stamps and other things that may change between build runs. Yea, the compiler *may* actually generate the same object files, sometimes they don't...

    Of course, this is NOT a universal rule, but as a rule of thumb is generally true. One build will not checksum the same as the next...

  4. Re: kapersky is in ur base hacking ur d00ds by F.Ultra · · Score: 2

    You could replace every ROM function from RAM on the Amiga. That was one of the benefits of the system.