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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

#161

Kaspersky has a very good research team which uncovered a lot of APT hacking groups including Russian ones so I don't see a reason why would they be a threat. But on the other hand Russian state can force them to snoop files and traffic from their clients but I doubt that will happen because everyone would stop using them and they would go bankrupt. Imo US government should use domestic antivirus solutions.

> I doubt that will happen because everyone would stop using them and they would go bankrupt.

The Russian state might not care a lot about that possible consequence and still coerce them to include malware in the next update.

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

#162
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have personally watched Windows Defender fail to notice a real virus infection from a USB flash drive. The USB flash drive was plugged in and instantly Windows was infected - Windows Defender did nothing. You could then manually run a Windows Defender scan and it would find the infection but it would not prevent the infection. I think one's need for a security product should match one's exposure to issues - it depe…

Would one of the commercial antivirus products have caught it, though? Did you check?

Yes. It was not a current virus, came from an old UEB flash drive that had been lying around for years. GravityZone noticed it and prevented it, which is why I knew to go look at the Win10 box the flash drive was last plugged into. Windows Defender's silence would have left us with the virus installed because it was not periodically scanning on its own.

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

#163
post #117
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even american security companies have ties to the intelligence community. Kaspersky is no different. In most countries private sector pays more so state hackers work at places like Crowdstrike or Kaspersky after some time. Their relationship with the IC helps develop and share intelligence both ways.

It's not just security companies. US ISPs are heavily tied to agencies and so are the large corps. The media is state ran just like Russia.

You can't be more wrong when you say "just like Russia". It is not even close. The killings of journalists, repressions... The last independent newspaper has to close its activity because it is not possible anymore to report truth while complying to the Russian laws: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/28/russias-novaya-gaze...

All this with Russian government/president approval rating of 70%.

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

#164

Is there any point in using antivirus these days anyway? I'm open to being wrong here, but I'm under the impression that antivirus exists only to tick boxes in outdated security compliance checklists. How big of a threat are viruses compared to, say, rogue antivirus products themselves?

Corporate “anti-virus” is much more than just anti-virus these days. Most of them don’t even call themselves anti-virus, but endpoint protection. Other than anti-virus, they let you set policies on USB ports, block web browsing by categories or specific domains, let you run software inventory reports, etc. These things are very important, especially with work from home, as you can’t really block things at the office firewall anymore.

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

#166
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

except when it comes to force companies out of the USA because of "security reasons". I think Russia is using similar tactics, does it?

Try saying the words "Ukraine War" in Russia. That alone is grounds for getting arrested, possibly disappeared and/or tortured. You have to say "Ukrainian Special Security Operation".

This is from the first article I came across on the RT front page right now:

>Moscow attacked neighboring Ukraine last month, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

>Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military alliance. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

It doesn't seem like they are afraid of getting disappeared for saying russia attacked ukraine.

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

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would really hope my organization doesn't start blanket banning excel macros for "security". It'll be a huge blow to productivity for several.

They'd just learn Python. They'd be fine.

I won't, even when I do know how to script in Python. We don't really like having our workflows disrupted for silly reasons

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

#168
post #164

Is there any point in using antivirus these days anyway? I'm open to being wrong here, but I'm under the impression that antivirus exists only to tick boxes in outdated security compliance checklists. How big of a threat are viruses compared to, say, rogue antivirus products themselves?

Corporate “anti-virus” is much more than just anti-virus these days. Most of them don’t even call themselves anti-virus, but endpoint protection. Other than anti-virus, they let you set policies on USB ports, block web browsing by categories or specific domains, let you run software inventory reports, etc. These things are very important, especially with work from home, as you can’t really block things at the office…

They also slow your machine down, report back to the company and throw annoying pop ups at you multiple times per day.

Never again.

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

#169
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of legit potential concerns.. Russian govt could "nationalize" Kaspersky at any moment and push rogue updates.

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)

Russia can do it without any backlash from their citizens. U.S. can't do it to their own citizens without backlash. Differences in representation of population means different incentives.

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

#170
post #165

The only software most Windows PCs need out of the box is TinyWall ( https://tinywall.pados.hu/ )

The playful snow on the home page doesn’t inspire confidence.

It is an excellent piece of software.

Other projects by the same developer:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/other-projects-36886285

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