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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

#321

Post by PoignardAzur »

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. Although the US government and intelligence agencies will and do try to overreach, there is a strong legal and cultural tradition of exposing, resisting, and fighting these overreaches in the US.

That point would be a lot stronger if the US government hadn't demonstrated shocking callousness and disregard for international law in their efforts to catch notorious whistleblowers Snowden and Assange.

I remember when Belarus downed a plane to catch a political dissident and all western countries acted shocked, even though these countries had tried to do the exact same thing to Snowden on the US's behalf, with a presidential plane no less.

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

#322

Post by PoignardAzur »

monetus wrote: post #209
rat9988 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only backlash I saw is the backlash to snowden from its own country.

That is just silly, and has to be said in bad faith. Are you serious?

Where's the bad faith? The US and its allies pulled down the plane of the fucking president of Bolivia to catch Snowden.

Those are not the actions of the state worried about public perception, except in a "silence the dissidents" sense.

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

#323

Post by throw10920 »

sschueller wrote: post #3
kozak wrote: post #2

Telegram is next?

Probably not but McAfee should be added just because it sucks so much.

Unironically, McAfee may be a greater threat to US national security than Kasperky. McAfee is actually used by the Department of Defense[1], and Kaspersky is not. Given how bad McAfee actually is, I think that that makes it worse.

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

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

#324

Post by annoyingnoob »

RadixDLT wrote: post #317
annoyingnoob wrote: post #115

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…

dont confuse BitDefender with Windows Defender, not the same thing

I did not confuse them. Yes, I mentioned GravityZone in a follow - which is a BitDefender product, and is the product that found the issue when Windows Defender did not.

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

#325

Post by jwatt »

libraryatnight wrote: post #125
older wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kaspersky graduated from The Technical Faculty of the KGB Higher School in 1987. That was a definition of a dirtbag in Soviet time.

I can't find the actual profile on Wired anymore, but I found it on the internet archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20140423055434/http://www.wired.... and also a sort of response to it https://web.archive.org/web/20140426095603/http://www.wired.... After I read that profile I decided I'd never use the software. I remember before news spread of the Russian troll farms being real, people talked about it like "who wo…

The original Wired links are:

https://www.wired.com/2012/07/ff-kaspersky/

https://www.wired.com/2012/07/kaspersky-indy/

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

#326

Post by sudosysgen »

kelnos wrote: post #293
makomk wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There definitely seems to be at least a little truth to that argument, though. Over the years Kaspersky has found and documented a whole bunch of seemingly US government linked malware whilst their Western competitors just haven't, and I think there's at least some evidence this is intentional on the part of those other companies.

> There definitely seems to be at least a little truth to that argument, though. Of course there is, but as this thread is trying to point out, that "little truth" is completely insufficient when assessing risk. The degree to which a particular government can interfere with companies headquartered there matters. The legal culture in those countries matter. The ability to contest and redress this interference matters.…

We already do know, however, that the US has no shame "asking" US run companies for their customer's data without due process, and that this has been going on for every large US tech company. So I don't see the logic.

You talk about assessing risk, but we know from the Snowden leaks that the risk in this matter in the US approaches 100% as the size of your company increase. What degree of risk is higher than 100%?

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

#327

Post by sudosysgen »

kelnos wrote: post #302
syshum wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hmm FISA, Gag orders, National Secrecy laws, etc all exist in US law, so tell me again how they are different? Also, as an American Citizen, who has more power to put me the individual in a cage, the FSB or NSA?

I think it's reasonable to acknowledge that, due to my citizenship and physical residence location, the NSA is probably more of a threat to my personal freedom than the FSB, but also acknowledge that, all things being equal, the FSB is a shadier organization than the NSA, with fewer legal restrictions on its behavior.

There are no relevant legal restrictions on the NSA behaviour. We know that the NSA breaks the law without any consequences. This idea that Western intelligence is any less corrupt and morally bankrupt, and indeed any less willing to interfere with people outside their borders as anyone else is frankly entirely ridiculous.

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

#328

Post by syshum »

sokoloff wrote: post #285
syshum wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hmm FISA, Gag orders, National Secrecy laws, etc all exist in US law, so tell me again how they are different? Also, as an American Citizen, who has more power to put me the individual in a cage, the FSB or NSA?

Who has more practical power to force code into a security product that runs in a privileged context, without anyone finding out? I think it’s not the NSA.

Why do you believe that, the NSA had access to Cisco PIX systems for years and it was only disclosed once those systems started to be replaced with ASA and other newer hardware.

I dont believe the NSA, CIA or even the FBI really have any actual legal limits.

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

#329

Post by IngvarLynn »

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…

Kaspersky consciously, under no pressure chose to be chekist. That is absolutely all You need to know about this person and his deeds, consequentially. The numerous ruminations on "coercion" are just deeply naive. He is a member of kremlin gang. Anything else falls into bottomless category of whitewashing.

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

#330

Post by driverdan »

annoyingnoob wrote: post #115
hans1729 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a thing in big orgs, where macros are enabled in excel and employees can be tricked into opening mail attachments. Windows defender should suffice, but like you said, from a compliance/insurance perspective it may me valuable to say “look, we scanned for signatures according to the latest knowledge of [insert vendor]”. Personally I think that it’s ridiculous that these huge orgs fail to address the actual underl…

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…

What mechanism would a flash drive use to infect a modern version of Windows by only being plugged in?
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