Slashdot Mirror
Kaspersky Halts Europol Partnership After Controversial EU Parliament Vote (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Kaspersky Lab announced it was temporarily halting its cooperation with Europol following the voting of a controversial motion in the European Parliament. The Russian antivirus vendor will also stop working on the NoMoreRansom project that provided free ransomware decrypters for ransomware victims.
The company's decision comes after the EU Parliament voted a controversial motion that specifically mentions Kaspersky as a "confirmed as malicious" software and urges EU states to ban it as part of a joint EU cyber defense strategy. The EU did not present any evidence for its assessment that Kaspersky is malicious, but even answered user questions claiming it has no evidence. The motion is just a EU policy and has no legislative power, put it is still an official document. Kaspersky software has been previously banned from Government systems in the US, UK, Netherlands, and Lithuania.
The company's decision comes after the EU Parliament voted a controversial motion that specifically mentions Kaspersky as a "confirmed as malicious" software and urges EU states to ban it as part of a joint EU cyber defense strategy. The EU did not present any evidence for its assessment that Kaspersky is malicious, but even answered user questions claiming it has no evidence. The motion is just a EU policy and has no legislative power, put it is still an official document. Kaspersky software has been previously banned from Government systems in the US, UK, Netherlands, and Lithuania.
Personally I think the EU has gone mad.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Finally, Europol is onto Russian influence.
Trump has been effusively praising, justifying, apologizing, and whataboutizing every single military despot he's come across while insulting and mischaracterizing the historical alliances in what is a deliberate effort to weaken them, the EU, NATO, and repeal the Magnitsky Act. There's really no question he's in the pocket of Russia on some level, else he wouldn't have needed to lie about his seeking Moscow Trump Tower, having been there overnight, and on and on and on. It's not a mistake, and it's not a witch hunt. There is a there there, and it's Moscow, and Trump has been in direct and indirect communication with a military despotism there.
This is treason. Declaring war would make that formally true. Congress must now act, and it realizes that whether or not it chooses to. If it does not, Congressional supporters of treason must also be considered defacto complicit.
Jeff Flake may be right for the wrong reasons, and late to the realization, but he is not wrong. Neither are the legions of Republicans realizing Trump is not legitimately looking after US interests - and never really was.
It was a hail mary to pardon his friends and wipe away his decades of fraud, and it has failed spectacularly. Now we see what remains, and we unfortunately see the Republican party is far too weak to police itself anymore.
We wouldn't be in this mess if we had just drafted John McAfee President.
The way things are going, Kaspersky will become the victim of "we can't prove it but they are evil" global campaign, eventually leaving the company very few options to survive. A natural shift would be to cyber-security offensive tools - a cyber weapon manufacturer if you will. While the US may balk at using Kaspersky as a defense tool, I don't think the FBI will blink if they can buy a better iPhone hacking tool from Kaspersky, or US or Chinese army if they can buy a better cyber-weapon. They'll rename it for security reasons I'm sure, so it won't be Kaspersky iPhone hacking or electrical grid crashing tool, it will be ACME Inc.
That's one way to create cyber-weapon manufacturers in today's world. No need to wait for someone to start it and get funding from investors with no scruples.
Can someone please provide a post or a link to any credible information as to what Kaspersky actually has done wrong? The authorities in the EU and the US has pretty much called them a malware manufacturer but I have never heard of anyone victimized by malware they were alleged to have made.
My guess is that they refused to play footsie with the U.S. security state and this is the payback.
They didn't call them a "malware manufacturer." US authorities claimed Kaspersky allowed FSB agents to use its software as a search engine of users' PCs and look for sensitive files. That's how an NSA leak happened, claimed the US. Kaspersky said the leak happened because the NSA agent took nation-state cyber-weapons home, which its software detected and uploaded to its servers for analysis. They also say the agent's computer had several malware infections, and other malware operations could have stolen the files and passed them to Russian intelligence. It's a he says she says mess.
Symantec and Norton go unpunished for their numerous crimes against society.
Kaspersky dared to reveal NSA malware, when all other "anti"virus company cooperated.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Not quite how it works.
In the US, certain agencies are forbidden by law from using their tactics on US citizens.
A workaround is to get foreign agencies to do the intrusive work and share it with the US.
Then there's reciprocity.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
It's not "evidence," it's "fear."
“The department is concerned about the ties between certain Kaspersky officials and Russian intelligence and other government agencies, and requirements under Russian law that allow Russian intelligence agencies to request or compel assistance from Kaspersky and to intercept communications transiting Russian networks,” the DHS said in a statement.
“The risk that the Russian government, whether acting on its own or in collaboration with Kaspersky, could capitalize on access provided by Kaspersky products to compromise federal information and information systems directly implicates US national security.”
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Kaspersky said the leak happened because the NSA agent took nation-state cyber-weapons home, which its software detected and uploaded to its servers for analysis.
The software did what it says it will do on the tin which many of it's competitors do as well (never mind that you can easily choose to have that functionality turned off), and because some idiot US TLA contractor commits an illegal act the developers would have no way to predict, the software and the company behind it are the 'bad guys'.
This is blame-shifting combined with propaganda meant to distract from US domestic issues regarding powerful people and government agencies run amok.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
It is likely that "hometown" companies are assuming they will get lots of government contracts if Kapersky is banned. But the reason that so many places use Kapersky is that it was good and effective.
Of course, software from possibly hostile (or even possibly friendly) countries should not be used in high security government areas. But those leaks could have happened with -any- anti-virus software, there was nothing different about Kapersky except its home. It is -not- ok to take top-secret stuff home with you!
Also, condemning someone without any evidence is against our laws (in most countries).
when you are a Friend of Putin evidence comes to you
Replace "allowed" with "failed to stop". It sounds like the issue is Kaspersky's internal network was compromised. That leads me to the next obvious point, of whether what's true with Kaspersky's software is true for most anti-virus software--the automatic upload and analysis of suspect files to the anti-virus vendor. If it is, then it's likely every anti-virus vendor has been targeted. But like failed banks in the US, I don't see them announcing them all vulnerable and banning them because that'd undermine the illusion of security they provide for which the NSA/FBI actually would like to exploit just as much as the FSB.
I guess the real main difference is the fear that the FSB may have physical access to Kaspersky system regardless of exploits because of jurisdiction over Kaspersky. I'd retort that it's likely every anti-virus vendor and Microsoft/Apple/Google has moles or informants from several different intelligence agencies and/or active exploit campaigns; given the breathe of potential intelligence gathering, it's almost a certainty. The only safe thing to do is to not use anti-virus or Microsoft/Apple/Google code with any privilege with anything you have any secrecy concerns about, and if possible don't use an internet connected device.
In the end, like you say, the biggest failing is an NSA agent who improperly took secret information and put it on any such machine. It's easier to blame Kaspersky than to acknowledge that at the root of capitalism (just like communism) is the willingness of people to sell out to governments, so that applies to all companies and all people. They want to teach Kaspersky a lesson though, much the same as any other sanction, because they were caught more in their incompetence and not necessarily in their malice. I think you'll find plenty of malice on US soil, though.
good brands with skills to help detect new malware and tell the world about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Stuxnet
Flame
Equation Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Duqu
Nation backed cyber-espionage
Thats some good real history of protecting users globally. What does the EU cyber defense strategy do? Pass a motion?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Yes. The good brands protect the net from any new malware they discover in the wild.
Other AV brands cover for PRISM, Equation Group or don't have the skills to detect.
Recall the Magic Lantern (software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
That showed US thinking on US antivirus vendor cooperation
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
That doesn't protect the EU though.
Kaspersky has been the prime antagonist of US internet intrusion based spying worldwide. Which is why propaganda against them has gone into overdrive. The EU is killing our best defense against US spying, then again the EU has always been a tool by which the US can control Europe, so no surprises there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
That is what Kaspersky did "wrong".
So you're completely unaware that the US gathers intel on EU citizens and feeds that shit back to the EU under the table?
Reciprocity.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Why isn't windows 10 getting the same treatment? They ARE data mining, no question about it and no way to completely say stop so why is Microsoft not getting the same treatment? Their is a good argument its malware also.
Jack of all trades,master of none
Kaspersky also "defends" themselves by claiming it isn't their fault the Russian intelligence services stole access, they claim to just be a crime victim. Problem is, they continue to also cooperate with the Russian government. They're Russian, so of course they have to.
But the net total of that is that they admit to be controlled by the Russian government, they just don't want to lose business over it. Which is understandable, but not a strong argument. ;)
It isn't a he-said-she-said, it is a bunch of hand-waving with idiots claiming not to comprehend the known facts.
They certainly don't deny that the NSA's data ended up with the FSB, or that they were the conduit.
Reciprocity suggests there is an equality in the exchange, there is not. It's quid pro quo.
The EU sells out it's citizens to US demands, it gets to have a little more safety for the time granted back, while continuing down the path which makes it unsafe.
So, they intend to force Kaspersky from being one of the top antivirus providers (and probably the only one that refuses to install NSA/CIA backdoors) into... what? Do they think they'll put them out of business?
Meanwhile, they use their baseless allegations to convince the rest of the populous to install one of the other PC security packages that have backdoors in place for the local spy agencies...
"[A]ll effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward." Mein Kampf
Most people simply confuse who among the Nazis top heads uttered this idea.
(Basically confusing the guy who wrote it in his book, and the guy who applied it systematically in all propaganda).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Versus our companies who cooperate with secret court orders that we're not even allowed to talk about. There's no telling how many US software companies are compromised other than the ones that have protested.
Fuck right off
That's complete nonsense and just shows you don't care about the topic enough to learn the public details and get them straight in your head.