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Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat and is banned by the FCC

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Re: Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat and is banned by the FCC

#341

Post by iudqnolq »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #124
Maursault wrote: post #54

Ok, let's cut the crap. Is Kaspersky a dirtbag or not? I suspect not, but it is an unfortunate accident he was born in and runs his company from Russia, the government of which is a dirtbag, so, correct me if I am wrong, Kaspersky must be a dirtbag by association, but especially for discovering Stuxnet. Believable, but I think the real reasons Kaspersky is persona non grata is due to having discovered Stuxnet, and Ka…

The problem is: how do you run a business that has offices and physical assets in Russia, without being at least partially beholden to the Russian government? They have demonstrated that they are not shy about using gangster tactics. One could say that the same is true in the US, but I believe the degree matters. Although the US government and intelligence agencies will and do try to overreach, there is a strong lega…

> One could say that the same is true in the US, but I believe the degree matters.

I think the key misconception behind this argument is the idea that harmful governments is a binary flag, such that if you're subjected to one adding more makes no difference. In fact, different governments have different concerns. This means if you're subject to the US and Russia you're significantly more constrained than if you were just subject to one. As such, it makes sense to reduce exposure even if you obviously can't eliminate it.

(I also believe the US govt is much better than Russian, but I'm leaving that out because I my argument doesn't need it and I'm uninterested in that argument)

Re: Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat and is banned by the FCC

#342

Post by trasz »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #265
dahdum wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Shouldnt i have the same concerns with software from the US? You dont really have to nationalize to force devs to push malicious code (looking at you Australia) You should have the same concerns about software from anywhere, including the US. I believe it's a couple orders of magnitude more likely I'd be harmed by Russian government malicious code than any other nation. Russia is in crisis, striking indiscriminatel…

> Russia is in crisis, striking indiscriminately, and has no reputation left to lose. So that's where my concern lies. With wikileaks, we've seen, that americans did all of the same things, you now try to accuse russia of potentialy doing. I'm not saying russians won't do it, but americans already did it.

They have - in the past. The threat from Russia is now.

Re: Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat and is banned by the FCC

#343

Post by usednet »

timbit42 wrote: post #227
coliveira wrote: post #62

So, basically we are allowed to protect against any external security threat, except the ones created by US spy agencies.

Why aren't you allowed to protect against threats created by the US spy agencies?

Because then you get a gag order and a wiretap.

Re: Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat and is banned by the FCC

#345

Post by ajsnigrutin »

trasz wrote: post #342
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Russia is in crisis, striking indiscriminately, and has no reputation left to lose. So that's where my concern lies. With wikileaks, we've seen, that americans did all of the same things, you now try to accuse russia of potentialy doing. I'm not saying russians won't do it, but americans already did it.

They have - in the past. The threat from Russia is now.

So you're saying that they suddenly stopped for no reason at all?

Re: Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat and is banned by the FCC

#346

Post by ajsnigrutin »

kbenson wrote: post #308
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So can microsoft, adobe, google, etc. Even without them, NSA can intercept the hardware and put their software on those boxes... wikileaks showed a bunch of stuff NSA did. If you're a valuable target, it's basically choosing if you want to be spied on by the russians or the americans. (or installing linux, and hoping for the best).

> So can microsoft, adobe, google, etc. Even without them, NSA can intercept the hardware and put their software on those boxes... Those companies often actually have people scan the hardware they receive to check for alterations. There was a whole thing about this a decade ago where a reporter (wrongly, IIRC) accused Facebook and Google of having compromised motherboards, and people from those companies were comment…

I was talking about google/apple being able to inject arbitrary code into (almost) any phone via (eg.) google play service update or whatever apple has. Also microsoft with windows update, and many other companies too.

Re: Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat and is banned by the FCC

#347

Post by NelsonMinar »

sovietmoonbase wrote: post #277
NelsonMinar wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an important difference: American security companies have ties to American intelligence. The concern here is Kaspersky has ties to Russian intelligence. If you're an American company or government agency and have to choose between the two the choice is pretty clear. I have a lot of respect for Kaspersky and hope they are still independent. But "ties to intelligence" can come in many forms: deliberate, coerced…

> If you're an American company or government agency and have to choose between the two the choice is pretty clear. I suppose that entirely depends on one's threat-model. As an American, I have greater concerns of USG oppression than I do Russian. As the Russians have their ham-fisted means of exterting influence on a company, the US has their very own nasty ways of infiltration. If you're interested in personal free…

No post body was provided.

Re: Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat and is banned by the FCC

#348

Post by wnevets »

usednet wrote: post #338
wnevets wrote: post #181

Kaspersky was caught helping the Russian government back in 2017. Anyone still using their software in 2022 probably has much larger problems.

Nobody within the hacking scene actually believed that story. It’s remarkable that there’s been 0 evidence that Kaspersky has ever had a backdoor yet so many people believe it. The NSA’s own incompetence led them to run an antivirus on a computer with Equation Group spyware on it. Keep in mind that Kaspersky had been fighting Western intelligence services for years at that point. Israeli intelligence actually breache…

I'm getting deja vu to when I was told Russian's continued invasion of Ukraine was just propaganda by the West [1]

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1494006204896620548

Re: Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat and is banned by the FCC

#349

Post by kelnos »

laurent92 wrote: post #282
saiya-jin wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, as non-US citizen, thus having sub-human rights in eyes of every US 3-letter agency, still prefer very much US approach to, well, practically any matter compared to Russian one. For Russians, they really don't like anybody else. All that slavic closeness is crap as we can see in Ukraine and elsewhere. Heck, they don't care about other Russians neither, just a cannon fodder and poor fuckers to exploit and then thro…

It would help US to condemn Colin Powell for brandishing supposed proof of WMD at the UN Counsel in 2003, which they never found after invasion. It would help for the US to stop Predator attacks. Most of the world is convinced that they are illegal and illegitimate. And as a French person, I preferred Trump, because he didn’t trigger any new war and he calmed down Little Rocket Man. He even shook his hand! And donate…

Ah yes, casual misogyny masquerading as sound military strategy.

Re: Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat and is banned by the FCC

#350

Post by usednet »

wnevets wrote: post #348
usednet wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody within the hacking scene actually believed that story. It’s remarkable that there’s been 0 evidence that Kaspersky has ever had a backdoor yet so many people believe it. The NSA’s own incompetence led them to run an antivirus on a computer with Equation Group spyware on it. Keep in mind that Kaspersky had been fighting Western intelligence services for years at that point. Israeli intelligence actually breache…

I'm getting deja vu to when I was told Russian's continued invasion of Ukraine was just propaganda by the West [1] https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1494006204896620548

I’m getting deja vu to “WMDs”, “moderate rebels,” “dictators,” and “national security.” Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
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