Kaspersky Lab Says it Has ‘No Ties to Any Government’

A day after an investigative report alleged that some intelligence officials are worried about the growing use of Kaspersky Lab products within the U.S. government, the security software vendor today pushed back on assertions that it’s in cahoots with any government.

Citing unnamed intelligence sources, social news website BuzzFeed reported Monday that there is an active effort to roll back the use of Kaspersky cybersecurity tools by U.S. federal agencies out of concern that the Moscow-based firm maintains close ties to the Russian government.

In an email statement to MSPmentor today, Kaspersky officials said the company’s reputation is being attacked unfairly.

Following is the complete statement:

“As a private company, Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government, and the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage efforts.

For 20 years, Kaspersky Lab has been focused on protecting people and organizations from cyberthreats, and its headquarters’ location doesn’t change that mission–just as a U.S.-based cybersecurity company doesn’t allow access or send any sensitive data from its products to the U.S. government, Kaspersky Lab products also do not allow any access or provide any private data to any country’s government.

During the last 10 years, Kaspersky Lab has discovered and publicly reported on multiple Russian-speaking cyber espionage campaigns, which is most than any other U.S.-based company.

Due to the company’s unique and global customer mix, Kaspersky Lab will continue demonstrating its leadership by finding and reporting global cyberthreat campaigns, regardless of the origin or intention.

Unlike in many other products, Kaspersky Lab users have full control over telemetry (data) sharing with their participation being voluntary, and they can disable telemetry reporting completely at any given time.

In addition, business and government users may choose to install a local and private Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) center on their premises to make sure the data never leaves their facility.

Kaspersky Lab routinely attains licenses and certifications from the countries it operates in, including one from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, certifying the company’s encryption technologies for businesses as fully compliant with the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2.

These certifications and licenses demonstrate Kaspersky Lab products are trusted to secure sensitive data and are protecting organizations without any issues or unexpected behaviors.

The company has a 20 year history in the IT security industry of always abiding by the highest ethical business practices, and Kaspersky Lab believes it is completely unacceptable that the company is being unjustly accused without any hard evidence to back up these false allegations.

Kaspersky Lab is available to assist all concerned government organizations with any ongoing investigations, and the company ardently believes a deeper examination of Kaspersky Lab will confirm that these allegations are unfounded.”

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