Kitz Forum
Announcements => News Articles => Topic started by: renluop on October 11, 2017, 02:15:16 PM
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An article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/10/11/daily-202-foreign-intelligence-agencies-might-be-using-your-anti-virus-software-against-you/59dd6e5a30fb0468cea81e60/?utm_term=.6b4b1c7b90dc) suggests that Russia may be using Kapersky for hacking in to western systems.
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That's why the US government banned Kaspersky Labs software from federal computers amid concerns over Kremlin ties reported on September 13 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/13/us-government-bans-kaspersky-labs-software-federal-computers/
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I cant read the original link without a subscription :/
But this seems a right tangled web with spies spying on spies and hackers hacking hackers. There does appear to be some sort of leak dating back years, the big question is were Kaspersky aware or is it as some sources have claimed that Russia may have made use of an exploit in their code.
The one thought that strikes me is that because this has been bubbling underneath the surface for so long, I would like to have thought that Kapersky could at have at least checked their own source for signs of malicious code. Also why would Kaspersky risk their reputation.
Don't know enough about it though other than someone was supposedly monitoring certain NSA data back in 2015.
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Tempting to add two and two and make five. :-\
Circa 25 years back, I attended a job interview with a well known UK pioneer of AV. A small British company, with a British name. The position I applied for was based just on programming skills, and experience of networking and UI. I took the opportunity to ask my interviewer (the then CEO) what kind of people were employed to do the real, nuts & bolts, virus discovery and analysis, that being a skill set I could not identify with?
Answer was, “They are invariably Russian, they seem to have the aptitude”.
Point being, if the Russians were intent on infiltrating AV distributors, which I doubt, it would not just affect those with Russian-sounding names. :)
Personally I have high regard for Eugene K as an individual, for standing up to, and destroying, some US patent trolls causing grief for App developers a few years ago. I also like kasperski’s product, it is the only paid AV I have ever used beyond the free trial period.
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USA propaganda machine at work :)
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I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact Kaspersky are releasing a free product, coming to the UK soon but already available in other countries?
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USA propaganda machine at work :)
Hard to tell with the current US hysteria concerning anything Russian. I wasn't sure about the DNC/Podesta hacks(US says Russians, WikiLeaks say leaker) and then a similar thing happened in the French election and I thought - OK, looks like it's probably the Russians. Then there was a recent report (https://www.thenation.com/article/a-new-report-raises-big-questions-about-last-years-dnc-hack/) suggesting the DNC hack was downloaded from their servers to the US east coast. The problem for me is that I really have trouble trusting anything that may have come under the grubby influence of the Clinton/Democratic machine.
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I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact Kaspersky are releasing a free product, coming to the UK soon but already available in other countries?
Its launched in the UK the other week: https://www.kaspersky.co.uk/free-antivirus
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It seems to be US propaganda.
Germany: 'No evidence' Kaspersky software used by Russians for hacks
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-kaspersky-germany/germany-no-evidence-kaspersky-software-used-by-russians-for-hacks-idUSKBN1CG284 (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-kaspersky-germany/germany-no-evidence-kaspersky-software-used-by-russians-for-hacks-idUSKBN1CG284)
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s BSI federal cyber agency said on Wednesday it had no evidence to back media reports that Russian hackers used Kaspersky Lab antivirus software to spy on U.S. authorities.
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not surprised bowden, I personally trust russian software more than something the NSA or the UK equivelent can get their hands on.
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. . . the UK equivelent . . .
GCHQ (https://www.gchq.gov.uk/)
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Personally I regard the whole issue as, whilst I hate to use the expression, simply “Fake News”.
It seems to have been a story made up by the Washington Post, The Telegraph and others, based on nothing more than hearsay.
Trouble is, there’s not a single newspaper or news channel that I do take seriously these days. BBC could once be trusted, and a couple of other UK papers, be these days are long gone. If thermonuclear global warfare broke out tomorrow I’d probably be the last one to know, as I’d refuse to believe any of the reports. ::)
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All around mis and disinformation makes me think, that St Paul's, "the Devil is the father of Lies" is justified even if one has no religion. It seems the bigger the lie the better it is to entrap people
in hating and distrusting others. It's just as a "gentleman, who died in 1945 in a bunker had said, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
What gets me is that gullibility increases with education.
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GCHQ (https://www.gchq.gov.uk/)
thanks :)
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Me, I'm sure Russia have been busy doing *something*.
But, whatever they've been up to, they're certainly good at adding that mis- and dis-information into the mix, so you can't be sure *what*.
While GCHQ (et al) might have the job of figuring it out, they don't have the job of making sure I understand it. So I work on the principle that these things might have happened. Or might not have happened. But that some of them probably did.
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Heh. Evidence or I don't believe it. We could also claim that certain US vendors were used by the United States, though that was more due to their dodgy software basically functioning as a root kit for anyone who knew what to prod at, and given the NSA gets to review source code I've no doubt they had a good idea of vulnerabilities.
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Kapersky is back in the news again this weekend
The British government has issued a fresh warning about the security risks of using Russian anti-virus software.
BBC link (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42202191)
Barclays has stopped offering free Kaspersky anti-virus products to new customers following an official warning about Russian security software.
The bank emailed 290,000 online banking customers on Saturday to say the move was a "precautionary decision".
BBC news (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42209489)
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From link
Mr Kaspersky said that if he was ever asked by the Russian state to hand over data he would move his company out of the country.
Well why doesn't he do that before the state does? Even then I have doubts one could be sure about it.
Over in the Plusnet forum some one had picked up that Kapersky were advising that to guarantee clean removal their special uninstaller should be used. Surely suspect AV + same co's uninstaller needs some thought.