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Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

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Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#131

Post by varjag »

yters wrote: post #125
carvalho wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way down this thread, so time to ask the question: Do American anti-virus, social media, and search companies do exactly the same, but for the US military? I've always found it suspicious that Russia and China created their own social networks, email providers, and search engines. Almost like they know the power of a capable search engine or social network for intelligence gathering purposes. Google and US anti-virus…

Facebook has CIA related people on its board.

While it's quite plausible CIA has penetrated Facebook, the interference is very unlikely coming in through the board meetings.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#132

Post by lawnchair_larry »

openasocket wrote: post #25
DiabloD3 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically. I've seen what now looks like state sponsored bullshit blogs posing as tin foil hatters being posted to HN saying Kaspersky is part of the Russian intelligence apparatus, and that's why the US government pressured stores to remove Kaspersky AV from store shelves, etc etc etc. Most likely, they did their job, and they did it correctly. The NSA can't really defeat competent AV researchers who aren't even loo…

Kaspersky is pretty well known to have a close relationship with the Russian government, though. Hell, Kaspersky himself used to work for Soviet military intelligence. There's several articles cited here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspersky_Lab#Allegations_of_t... I'm not saying Kaspersky is a part of the Russian intelligence apparatus, but I wouldn't trust them to report on Fancy Bear campaigns, nor would I trus…

They are not known for any such thing, and Eugene did not work for military intelligence. He has addressed this many times.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#133

Post by mtgx »

_m96l wrote: post #34

Kaspersky has been known to collaborate with the Russian government and promote Russian interest. They've actively pursued state actors that are hostile to Russian interest, for example The Equation Group ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_Group ), which wouldn't be an organic part of the function or activities of a normal civilian cyber-security company. Such an "innocent" company would have no reason to get i…

You could argue exactly the same way against US security firms such as CrowdStrike, and a few others, which seem to focus on uncovering Russian malware.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#135

Post by Dolores12 »

_m96l wrote: post #34

Kaspersky has been known to collaborate with the Russian government and promote Russian interest. They've actively pursued state actors that are hostile to Russian interest, for example The Equation Group ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_Group ), which wouldn't be an organic part of the function or activities of a normal civilian cyber-security company. Such an "innocent" company would have no reason to get i…

Failing to find Equation Group tells alot about american antivirus companies as well. Who else they are hiding?

Kaspersky, Snowden, Positive Technologies(which are also russian) are doing great service to community. Cyber weapon is still weapon and people should know about it.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#136

Post by mtgx »

dunpeal wrote: post #121
Bendingo wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kaspersky has been known to collaborate with the Russian government and promote Russian interest I would like to see some actual evidence of this, instead of just allegations.

How else can you explain their obsessive occupation with The Equation Group, which they themselves claim to be a (US) state actor, targeting other (US-unfriendly) state actors? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_Group An ordinary anti-virus company would never get involved in state-vs-state cyber warfare, let alone pour tons of money into researching it. How does that support their business model? Do you think it…

I could make the very same argument against CrowdStrike, which has been focusing on uncovering Russian cyber attacks. Also here's some "damning evidence", too:

“There’s a Balkanization of cyberspace that’s occurring, and companies need to choose which side they’re on,” said Dmitri Alperovich, co-founder of U.S. security firm CrowdStrike.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-media-tech-summit-flame/so...

Sounds to me like they've "chosen a side", like you're implying Kaspersky has.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#137

Post by lqdc13 »

dunpeal wrote: post #121
Bendingo wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kaspersky has been known to collaborate with the Russian government and promote Russian interest I would like to see some actual evidence of this, instead of just allegations.

How else can you explain their obsessive occupation with The Equation Group, which they themselves claim to be a (US) state actor, targeting other (US-unfriendly) state actors? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_Group An ordinary anti-virus company would never get involved in state-vs-state cyber warfare, let alone pour tons of money into researching it. How does that support their business model? Do you think it…

Are you saying state sponsored malware should not be looked into?

It seems like American companies tend to find Russian state-sponsored malware and Russian ones keep finding US/US allies-sponsored malware.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#138

Post by erdojo »

This is what I read between the lines:

An NSA spook was working on his home laptop and playing around with some special NSA malware.

Kaspersky AV detected it - AS IT SHOULD - based on heuristic or behavior-based technology that just about every modern AV has.

The data was sent back to Kaspersky servers. This is also how everyone else does it, because this is how A/V companies create signatures that are pushed out to all other people who use Kaspersky so they can be protected against malware that could quickly go viral.

Israelis were poking around KAV servers and found the malware, and told the US Gov.

Those are the facts, right? Everything else is speculation, no? Did I miss something that proves the thesis of the story and the government accusations?

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#139

Post by apexalpha »

Our company uses the enterprise version of Kaspersky. But if we drop this over surveillance issues then it would be a pretty hypocritical to switch to AV software from the USA. Since they are proven to do the exact thing that Kaspersky is now suspected / blamed of doing.

So, fellow Europeans, what now? Avast? Any other options?

EDIT: Ok so I found a pretty useful Wiki list[1] with European made AV products. I haven't used them so I can't judge to their effectiveness, especially the enterprise versions. But here are some alternatives to US / RU anti virus suites.

Czech Republic: AVAST, AVG, TrustPort

Finland: F-Secure

Germany: Avira, G-Data

Iceland: FRISK (F-PROT)

Romania: Bitdefender

Slovakia: ESET

Spain: PANDA security

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_antivirus_softwa...

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