In the past week, United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced a federal wide ban against Kaspersky Labs AV products and services. Kaspersky Labs is a well-known cybersecurity research firm which also has an anti-virus software program which has been used by The U.S. government and private consumers. Unfortunately, Kaspersky Labs AV products has validated connections to cyberespionage activities. The binding order banning Kaspersky Labs AV products on U.S. government computers were issued Wednesday by the DHS acting director Elaine Duke. The order gives U.S. Federal agencies three months to inventory and remove the software. The real reason the U.S. Government is banning the AV software from Kaspersky Labs is based on ties between certain Kaspersky officials and Russian intelligence and other government agencies, and requirements under Russian law that has allowed Russian intelligence agencies to request or compel assistance from Kaspersky and to intercept communications transiting Russian networks,” according to an official DHS statement.
DHS went further and stated, "The risk that the Russian Government, whether acting on its own or in collaboration with Kaspersky Labs, could capitalize on access provided by Kaspersky Labs products to compromise U.S. Federal information systems could directly impact U.S. national security.” Of course, Kaspersky Labs had to respond to the accusations by stating, “Given that Kaspersky Labs doesn't have inappropriate ties with any government, the company is disappointed with the decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but also is grateful for the opportunity to provide additional information to the agency in order to confirm that these allegations are completely unfounded." Cybersecurity researchers, at Redport IA, LLC has already taken action by assessing which systems have installed Kaspersky Labs AV if any and have started the process of immediately removing the installation. Steve Reinkemeyer, CEO of Redport Information Assurance, LLC recommends a host of other quite capable anti-virus software which should not pose a threat to U.S. National Security in the future. There are a total of seven (7) top AV products recommended besides Kaspersky Labs. They are as follows; TotalAV, Scanguard, Norton, McAfee, AVG, PCCure+, and Eset.

By Dr. Randall Sylvertooth

Reference:
https://www.scmagazine.com/us-bans-use-of-kaspersky-labs-software-on-government-systems/article/688572/


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Gaithersburg, MD, USA