Pierluigi Paganini December 19, 2017

Kaspersky Lab sues the U.S. Government over product ban, it’s appeal was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Last week, the US President Donald Trump signed a bill that bans the use of Kaspersky Lab products and services in federal agencies.

Section 1634 of the bill prohibits the use of security software and services provided by security giant, the ban will start from October 1, 2018.

Below the details of the ban included in the section 1634 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018.

“SEC. 1634. Prohibition on use of products and services developed or provided by Kaspersky Lab.

(a) Prohibition.—No department, agency, organization, or other element of the Federal Government may use, whether directly or through work with or on behalf of another department, agency, organization, or element of the Federal Government, any hardware, software, or services developed or provided, in whole or in part, by—

          (1) Kaspersky Lab (or any successor entity);
          (2) any entity that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with Kaspersky Lab; or
          (3) any entity of which Kaspersky Lab has majority ownership.

(b) Effective date.—The prohibition in subsection (a) shall take effect on October 1, 2018.”

Now the security firm sues the U.S. Government over product ban, it’s appeal was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and targets the DHS’s Binding Operational Directive 17-01.

Kaspersky considers the ban as unconstitutional, according to the company the US Government took the decision to prohibit its products based on reports citing anonymous sources without strong evidence of its involvement in cyber espionage activities.

Kaspersky claims to have offered its support to the DHS for its investigation, but the agency issued the 17-01 directive, banning its security software and services without any warning.

The company sustains the DHS should have given it the opportunity to view the information before the directive was issued.

On the other side, Eugene Kaspersky was invited to testify before Congress in September, but he was unable to travel to the U.S. in time for the hearing due to visa problems.

A second hearing was announced for October, but Kaspersky was not invited to testify.

The decision of the US Government is having a significant impact on the brand reputation with a consequent effect on the sales in almost any sector and any country.

“Through Binding Operational Directive 17-01, DHS has harmed Kaspersky Lab’s reputation, negatively affected the livelihoods of its U.S.-based employees and U.S.-based business partners, and undermined the company’s contributions to the broader cybersecurity community,” said Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab.

What to do when banned without evidence and the right to be heard? Well, we’re securing our rights by taking this to the courts. Why? We’ve done nothing wrong. https://t.co/uPmS0iy2qW
#SecurityWithoutBorders pic.twitter.com/I2X4WcNJb1

— Eugene Kaspersky (@e_kaspersky) December 18, 2017

“Dissuading consumers and businesses in the United States and abroad from using Kaspersky Lab products solely because of its geographic origins and without any credible evidence does not constitute a risk-based approach to cybersecurity and does little to address information security concerns related to government networks,” Eugene Kaspersky added.

The security firm also announced a new transparency initiative that involves giving partners access to source code to exclude the presence of backdoors, it also proposed to pay huge bug bounties for vulnerabilities found in its security solutions.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  DHS,  cyber espionage)

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