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US 'Orchestrated' Russian Spies Scandal, Says Kaspersky Founder (theguardian.com)
Alex Hern, writing for The Guardian: Eugene Kaspersky, chief executive and co-founder of the embattled Russian cybersecurity firm that bears his name, believes his company is at the centre of a "designed and orchestrated attack" to destroy its reputation. Over a short period in the summer of 2017, Kaspersky Labs was the subject of multiple media reports alleging that the company had helped Russian intelligence agencies spy on the US, a number of FBI raids on staff members, and a nationwide ban on the use of its software by federal government agencies. "This media attack and government attack from the United States, it was designed and orchestrated," Mr Kaspersky said at a press conference in London. "Because at the same time, there was government, there was FBI, there was media attack. That is expensive ... I mean all kinds of resources: political influence, money, lobbyists, the media etc." When asked directly whether he had ever been asked to help Russian intelligence agencies spy on the US, Kaspersky vehemently denied any such conversations had ever happened saying: "They have never asked us to spy on people. Never." "If the Russian government comes to me and asks me to do anything wrong, I will move the business out of Russia," he added. "We never helped the espionage agencies, the Russians or any other nation."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
We need pretext to split the net, sorry.
Red scare 2.0, baby!
While I'm not sure whether I'd use Kaspersky before, paranoia on the part of its founder is not assuaging my concerns over it.
He not only admitted he downloaded the files, he said he was PROUD that he had downloaded the files as they furthered the investigation into malware.
The files then somehow made their way to the KGB.
Since then he's said that there was a trojan on the PC he got the files from (but the trojan infection wasn't their fault because the PC user had turned off Kapersky for awhile which they also knew) so Russian hackers must've gotten the information that way
Now he's saying it's a giant conspiracy?
He doesn't have to actively work with the Russian government - they could easily have moles in his organization pulling the data out.
TEH RUSSIANS!!!111
"If the Russian government comes to me and asks me to do anything wrong, I will move the business out of Russia."
Putin has invaded both Georgia & the Ukraine and executed a former ally in London with radioactive poison. Yet Kaspersky expects us to believe that he could just pick up roots and move his company out of Russia? The credibility stretching involved to be able to believe that is bigger than the sun.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Throwing rationales at the wall to see if any will stick.
I'd like to see some actual evidence, and not speculation.
When their mouths are moving!
Actually, they use ventriloquism a lot, so even that isn't a good sign.
Speaking through ventriloquist's dummies is their most common trick
'Teh media' (especially ones that operates a television channel) will jump at any chance to get a story out first. That means lots of 'developing' and 'stay tuned for details' and not any of 'fact checking' and 'research'. This does not cost any money.
Seems that everyone, be they Republican, Democrat, or Russian based anti-virus vendors forget this.
-- Still not sure if he's covering up the fact that Kapersky is working with the Russian gov. or that they're just not so good at protecting computers from malware/hacking. I'd put some money on that they were infiltrated by the FSB without their knowledge - again, not a good look for a security company.
I pride myself on being able to detect bullshit and this is 10 alarm bullshit. Before he was taking credit for his software identifying malware made by the US. Then it "some how" winds up in the hands of GRU. Now he's a poor little victim of those evil capitalists. That malware leaked out of your organization under your watch. You think the NSA director is an innocent victim as well? No. He's stupid. Kasperski is stupid or complicit. Neither warrants sympathy. If you're in the security business, you have to earn trust and keep it.
Trust the guy that graduated from a KGB training high school... and later had the KGB kill the kidnappers that abducted his son...
I guess it's time to change your name and product and move out of Russia, because trust is lost no matter the cause. It's not like we can't go to 20+ other security suites. (Not that I trust many of them, either)
US 'Orchestrated' Russian Spies Scandal, Says Kaspersky Founder
Water is wet, says everyone else.
"Russia, Russia, Russia!"
--Jan Brady, Democratic National Brady Bunch Committee
Edward Snowden's asylum would continue to cost Russian companies dearly.
What the US bureaucrats do not understand is that a president of Russia is not like a sultan. Russian people are hard to rule to a degree that the leadership cannot do whatever it wants. They have to listen to the public opinion.
In my opinion, it was impossible to extradite Edward Snowden. They were just unable to to it due to the public opinion. I think the US has to forget Snowden as if he did not exist. You cannot win them all.
... that America becomes the un-Russia.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
You cannot win them all.
But you can stay on topic.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Willing to provide their source code for inspection. Literally the only one.
Take that for what it's worth.
What else could he say. He might end up dead from a drink at dinner.
The files then somehow made their way to the KGB.
And we know that particular rendition of those bits came from Kaspersky how?
Since then he's said that there was a trojan on the PC he got the files from (but the trojan infection wasn't their fault because the PC user had turned off Ka[s]persky for awhile which they also knew) so Russian hackers must've gotten the information that way
And he extensively documented the reasons why he believes that to be the case. On the other side as far as I can tell, we basically have "Kaspersky and the KGB both ended up with copies of files and are both in Russia... oooooo."
Our government can't possibly have been involved with that at all. Because we're so above board and honest with all we do. We don't have any organizations in the United States that would possibly undertake such a thing. Because we've proven ourselves ethically and morally to have the highest standards of anyone in the world. Nope, couldn't have been us so he must be making wild allegations up. Yep. That's it.
When asked directly whether he had ever been asked to help Russian intelligence agencies spy on the US, Kaspersky vehemently denied any such conversations had ever happened saying: "They have never asked us to spy on people. Never."
What he did not say, was, "All they asked us to do was to spy on computers. Computers are not people. Corporations are people, my friend".
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
NSA says Stay away from Kaspersky, but Cisco is good, it's your friend, order today.
And we know that particular rendition of those bits came from Kaspersky how?
Because the files made it to Russia VIA Kaspersky - that's an undisputed fact proudly admitted by Kaspersky himself.
Our next task was to try and answer what may have happened to the data that was pulled back. Clearly an archive does not contain only those files that triggered, and more than likely contained a possible treasure trove of data pertaining to the intrusion set. It was soon discovered that the actual archive files themselves appear to have been removed from our storage of samples, while the individual files that triggered the alerts remained. Upon further inquiring about this event and missing files, it was later discovered that at the direction of the CEO, the archive file, named “[undisclosed].7z” was removed from storage.
When was it removed? They elaborate that it's [now] standard policy but it wasn't at the time. Did the CEO specifically order this file to be removed or was it a general order? Given the reading of the article it appears to be the latter.
The reason we deleted those files and will delete similar ones in the future is two-fold;
This concern was later translated into a policy for all malware analysts which are required to delete any potential classified materials that have been accidentally collected during anti-malware research or received from a third party.
In the future? later translated into a policy? When did this become policy?
BTW, this happened in 2014... What happened in 2015?
https://it.slashdot.org/story/...
Larry Walsh at Channelnomics scores the scoop in a Q&A with Kaspersky's Chris Doggett who says it's not the Russian security company's job to figure out who is responsible for a sophisticated cyber attack on its corporate network over the past few months. "We believe that to go beyond our area of expertise and speculate on the possible sources of attacks is not in the best interest of our customers," Doggett said.
"ooooooooo"
No no... must be a long term black op by the NSA...
For what it's worth: Kaspersky didn't necessarily have to do anything for the Russians to take advantage of their apparatus. The NSA in the US has tapped into many different systems and apparatuses without the system maker's cooperation. See: the TAO catalog.
Because the files made it to Russia VIA Kaspersky
It looks like you're badly conflating "Russia" and the KGB. It's hard to see how that doesn't unavoidably color the rest of your analysis.
Did the CEO specifically order this file to be removed or was it a general order? Given the reading of the article it appears to be the latter.
You didn't read the entire article. The Q&A at the bottom explicitly says it was the former: "After discovering the suspected Equation malware source code and classified documents, the analyst reported the incident to the CEO. Following a request from the CEO, the archive was deleted from all of our systems."
No no... must be a long term black op by the NSA...
If by "long term black op" you really mean "long term fuck up by an agent storing classified material on a home computer backdoored by downloading compromised keygen software," I'm right there with you. Otherwise, this appears to just be a distraction.
Kaspersky, you are not really so important that the US government will risk a scandal by trying to besmirch your reputation.
So the KGB got information in 2014. Nearly three decades after they were dissolved.
I'd like to hear the owners of Google and Facebook make equally strong statements about not cooperating with "wrong" demands from the government. I'll wait.
When it decides to slander, malign, and crush someone who does not worship its supremacy.
Not Putin.
All the Russia hysteria over the last few years has been straight-up Swiftboating. Fucking with other countries and wanting to spy on every person on the planet is what the United States does on a daily basis, so naturally it accuses someone else of doing what they do. If Kaspersky is proven to bend over backwards to help the FSB the same way American companies do for the CIA/NSA/FBI, then we can have a conversation, but so far the accusations have as much evidence to back them up as the conspiracy theory that Russia 'hacked the election' last year (i.e. none, nada, zip. zilch).
Karl Rove must be collecting some sweet royalties on this tactic.
All this hoopla, - Russia this, Russia that, Russia doping, Russian hackers, Russia & US election, etc. - started after Snowden's revelations. It had not been like this before.
Some officials in the USA said that Snowden affair was the largest and the most expensive intelligence catastrophe in the US history. A lot of money was lost, many carreers were broken. Initially Russia had not been involved in this at all, and at first it could not figure out what to do with him. He had been an US government agent after all.
But later, as often happens with underdogs, Snowden became kind of popular in Russia.
My point is that the US officials are making a mistake, because they think erroneously that Russia is ruled by a totalitarian government which can do whatever it wants, including extraditing Snowden. But in fact the political system in Russia is a complicated equilibrium, the same as in many othere lands.
My feeling is that extraditing Snowden may cause an instability, or even a revolution. It will never happen. So this story should be over and done with. It is time to get serious again and stop the naïveté.
All roads lead back to them. The FBI never accessed the server supposedly "hacked", no proof has been given, no proof needed. You want proof? It's next to Bin Laden's body in the ocean somewhere. Who needs fucking proof when you have a lapdog corporate whore media endlessly repeat themselves until something becomes a "fact" by virtue of public knowledge.
Wow, I thought the whole, "Russian troll", thing was just B.S., but with that one, I'm starting to believe. "I and you" was the first giveaway, but ending with "mother Russia" is probably not the correct approach if you're pretending to be American.
yes, the comment is proper weird, but doesn't sound like a Russian at all to me. Resembles Shadow Brokers style a bit though.
--- a Russian Anonymous Coward
If you run a proprietary operating system written in the United States with a proprietary antivirus written in Russia, expect to take it up the ass.
Interestingly worded statement, there.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
There's three Russian themes posts on the /. front page right now and all we're hearing about US politics... aside from opinions about tweets... is Russia focused too. I feel like the last time Russia got this much media attention was when Rocky IV was in cinemas.
Russia.
AntiVirus companies have a STUPID RULE I was falsely flagged on - was rescinded (I pointed out it was UTTER BS making exe packing a 'bad thing to do' as non-malware-making coders can use it).
Mr. Steven Burn of Malwarebytes hpHosts helped me overturn 'em by auditing my code for safety!
The 9 that had to CLEAR ME as safe:
ArcaVir
Comodo
ClamAV
EmsiSoft
McAfee
NOD32
Norton
Qihoo360
Sophos
Yet I still had to remove exe compression (they're inflexible & WRONG, no questions asked)!
Lastly: Yes NEW APK Hosts File Engine 10++ 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/ is classified by its hosters @ Start64 as an AntiVirus (& antispyware, freeware, portable, network & firewall).
APK
P.S.=> If ANYONE's WORK is exploitable it's antiviruses (as well as slowing the hell out of you & false positives galore) - want examples? Ask - I've got them by the BOATLOAD... apk
You have got to provide citations proving that you know bullshit from wild honey.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Here is the citation: http://5newsonline.com/2013/08... “Russia has stabbed us in the back, and each day that Mr. Snowden is allowed to roam free is another twist of the knife,” said New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer in a statement.
What I am trying to say is that it is all a big misunderstanding. Mr. Snowden is sort of too big, they cannot touch him, cannot extradite him due to the internal public opinion. And the senator erroneously thinks that it is done just for spite. Probably because he does not speak the language, is not aware the situation.
And this tit for tat, as it seems to them, will continue perhaps still for decades.
You are excused for not knowing this, but I'm a student of Manning, Snowden, and Winner and have been covering those stories (and other less high-profile) since they surfaced.
There are a lot of other /. ers who have been doing the same.
Your post clearly demonstrates that you are late to the party; have invested NO time investigating, and have an agenda.
I'm not going to educate you because you could have done that for yourself.
You know ... like we did.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
-1 Troll
But of course! Democrats don't want the truth to ruin their little gag here! This shit is big money!
Word! Fuck all y'all! Vote independent if you want something different to happen.
I expect they left a forwarding address.
You would say that, Uberbah because you're one of Putin's little helpers.
This user is a Pedobear Troll! Hide your chikdren and goats!
Is mockery comrade, big western joke like electing Donald Trump.
Facebook is spies. International spies. Every brand of mole out there. Your Facebook shit is "their" Facebook shit. It's not a problem as long as nobody comes along to blackmail you later like say a Chinese that just bought a building down the street from you in USA.
But sure look over THERE at HEY LOOK IT'S RUSSIA AGAIN. Big Russia spies not little old tiny itsy bitsy teeny weeny miniscule Israeli Mossad.
Not Jews no way ever do they break the law ever they are the Jews after all. Says the Jews. Says the News. The News is the Jews. They didn't accidentally get a monopoly on grandma and grandpa's TV's. Lazy kids that may be stupid but impress their peers also glare at it while doing "whatever".
Then the movies at the same time.. the wow what a coincidence same policy pushes. Get those guns out of here says Diane FeinSTEIN. Call up Mark ZuckerBERG quick and see if he has any way to tell anybody anything. Propaganda conduits unite.
Yes there are more ways no I didn't enumerate comprehensively. Use your fkn heads. Israel has been trying to overcome USA for millennia. The Federal Reserve isn't just accidentally controlled by Jews either. All a sneak move go watch Creature from Jeckyll Island etc.
Judaism is a religion of law. No such thing as a religion, of, law. religion-of-law is just fucking law people wake up. It is world. It is not a bunch of God's will to get locked up for sitting on a sidewalk in Monterey or whatever. The rest of it either. Sure agreement is smart. Jews running it is well...
usdebtclock.org
Israel is attacking USA from inside. They passed off as "looking whitish" (Semite is the race Jew is the culture) easier than say the Chinese or Russians or Egyptians etc. It was trans-generational infiltration of USA. The passive ones are just that, passive. If they didn't SHUT IT DOWN (you know the memes) then they are with the non-passive Jews incl. some of their cooperative goyim.
Have fun til it's not.
Glad to see Eugene Kaspersky can actually perceive reality. Unlike most of the people posting here.
The burden of proof lies on the accuser.
I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you mean that the burden of proof is on Kaspersky, to prove his accusation that it was a "designed and orchestrated attack"? Or the burden of proof is on the media, in that "multiple media reports alleging that the company had helped Russian intelligence agencies spy on the US"?
and, more to the point, if the net result of the "burden of proof" is "the accusation remains unproven," meaning neither proven nor disproven... what action should you take? You personally are not a criminal court.