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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And people wonder why Britain voted out.
Not at all - we just don't agree about the reason. To me it is obvious that people voted leave (by a small majority) because they were lied to by a small group of people, who either expect to gain personally from the chaos that is the consequence of Brexit (as we can already see now), or who hate all things foreign.
The Remain side, by and large, led a sober, pragmatic and fairminded campaign, while the Leave side appealed to what we used to call the inner Schweinehund in the many people that have been affected by the financial crisis, as well as using outright lies. As Hitler famously said, if you repeat a lie loudly and frequently, then people will eventually believe it.
I don't think there are many, even on the remain side, that love the EU - being sober, pragmatic and fairminded means that you are able to see both the advantages and the disadvantages of EU, but in this casehave decided that it is better to remain and work on improving things. Fortunately nothing is permanent - I remain confident that once we have experienced the reality of this mess long enough, we will seek to get back in.