Pierluigi Paganini
May 15, 2018
The antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab made the headlines again, the company confirmed that its code infrastructure is going to move to Switzerland. The news arrives just after the comment from the Netherlands government of the risks associated with the usage of Kaspersky Lab software.
Dutch government announced on Monday it plans to phase out the use of anti-virus software developed by Kaspersky Labs “as a precautionary measure” and recommending companies involved in the protection of critical infrastructure to do the same.
Dutch Government fear the aggressive Russian cyber strategy cyber that targets among others the country interests.
“In a letter to parliament, Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus said the decision was made because the Russian government had an “offensive cyber programme that targets among others the Netherlands and Dutch interests”.” reported The New York Times.
“He also said Moscow-based Kaspersky was subject to Russian laws that could oblige it to comply with Russian state interests.”
In response to the accusations from several governments, Kaspersky is moving a number of its core activities from Russia to Switzerland as part of its “Global Transparency Initiative.” It has been estimated that the overall costs of the transfer are $12m.
“The (Dutch) cabinet has carried out an independent review and analysis and made a careful decision on that basis,” Grapperhaus said. “Although there are no concrete cases of misuse known in the Netherlands, it cannot be excluded.”
Grapperhaus explained the Dutch government would consider revising the decision “if circumstances justify” doing so.
The U.S. DHS ban on the use of Kaspersky software by the U.S. Federal government in 2017, while Kaspersky continues to deny any cooperation with Russian intelligence,
Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre for agencies and organizations also suggests avoiding the usage of Kaspersky solutions for the protection of systems that manage classified information.
In December, Lithuania announced it will ban the products of the cybersecurity giant Kaspersky from computers in critical infrastructure.
In April, Twitter banned Kaspersky from advertising on its platform citing DHS ban for its alleged ties with Russian intelligence agencies.
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(Security Affairs – Kaspersky, Dutch Government)
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