Senate ready to ban use of Kaspersky products in DoD
Buried in a draft of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, is an outline of a ban on the usage of Kaspersky Lab software products at the U.S. Department of Defense facilities.
The reason? The Senate believes the Russian security giant “might be vulnerable to Russian government influence.”
The release of this information follows news that the FBI has been interviewing Kaspersky employees who work at the U.S. offices, NBC News reported on Tuesday. FBI agents visited employee homes to ask questions about company operations.
The investigation is the result of a secret investigation into Kaspersky’s relations with the Russian government by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier this year.
In May, ABC News reported the Senate intel committee sent a "secret memorandum" to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that "raised red flags regarding Kaspersky's ever-growing market presence on the U.S. market, including in U.S. critical infrastructure, where its security software is often found installed."
That same month, U.S. intelligence officers told Congress that they were investigating Kaspersky Lab and its software. And when asked if they would use Kaspersky products, the answer was a unanimous “No.”
Kaspersky has vehemently denied these claims and has continuously offered to provide access to its source code for government officials. Further, Kaspersky’s CEO Eugene Kaspersky has offered to testify before Congress if called upon.
Many security experts believe the move is merely political. Kaspersky is a leading provider of security products and has partnered with Europol on its No More Ransom campaign -- often providing decryptors to pesky ransomware.
Most recently, Kaspersky was one of two security firms that recognized the Petya cyberattack wasn’t malware, but rather a destructive virus.
"There’s no evidence that they have any back doors in their software or any ties to the Russian mafia or state,” according to Gartner researcher Peter Firstbrook. “It’s a red herring, but there is still a concern that you can’t operate in Russia without being controlled by the ruling party."
The issue stems from its CEO: Eugene Kaspersky was trained at a KGB-affiliated school and worked as a Soviet intelligence officer. A 2012 Wired profile found that Kaspersky still has deep ties to successors in Moscow.
About the latest Senate news, Kaspersky officials told Healthcare IT News: “Kaspersky Lab, and its Founder and CEO, Eugene Kaspersky do not have ties to any government, and the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with any cyber espionage efforts.”
“The company has a 20-year history in the IT security industry of always abiding by the highest ethical business practices, and Kaspersky Lab believes it is completely unacceptable that the company is being unjustly accused without any hard evidence to back up these false allegations,” they said.
The officials also pressed their continued willingness to work with the concerned government with any investigation and believe the investigation will prove all allegations are false.
Twitter: @JessieFDavis
Email the writer: jessica.davis@himssmedia.com
