The President of the Federal Office for Information Security warns again against security software from Kaspersky.
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Eugene Kaspersky, the founder and head of the security company Kaspersky.
© Kaspersky
Update June 23, 2022: BSI boss repeats warning about Kaspersky
Arne Schönbohm, President of the Federal Office for Information Security, issued his warning about Kaspersky security products
repeated
: “Anyone who continues to use Kaspersky products is acting ‘negligently’,” said Schönbohm. This poses a threat to national security.”
Alternatives to Kaspersky: The best antivirus tools in the test
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Original report from March 17, 2022: Eugene Kaspersky criticizes BSI – attack on German consumers
Eugene Kaspersky, the founder and head of the security company Kaspersky, has just published an open letter to the BSI on his company’s website. In the letter “Collateral damage – for cyber security”, Kaspersky criticizes the BSI’s decision in clear terms as unjustified.
The allegations by the BSI are “pure speculation, not supported by any objective evidence or technical details”. Kaspersky sees the warning as a political decision that may not even have been made by the BSI itself. Kaspersky is probably alluding to the fact that the BSI, as a federal authority, reports to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Kaspersky even goes so far as to claim that the BSI’s warning would endanger IT security in Germany.
Kaspersky continues: The warning from the BSI
“is also an attack on the jobs of thousands of German IT security experts, on law enforcement officers we have trained to fight the most advanced cybercrime, on German computer science students whom we have helped with their training, on our partners in research projects in the most critical areas of cybersecurity and to tens of thousands of German and European companies of all sizes that we have protected from the full spectrum of cyber attacks.”
It is noteworthy that Eugene Kaspersky speaks of a “war” in Ukraine – this does not correspond to the propaganda-oriented choice of words for Russian media prescribed by the Putin regime, which completely avoids the term “war”.
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background
The Federal Office for Information Security BSI warns against Kaspersky virus protection software. Users of Kaspersky software should switch to alternatives, the best alternatives to Kaspersky can be found here in the test. PC-WELT asked Kaspersky for a statement. These were sent to us by Kaspersky, which is also a sponsor of Eintracht Frankfurt, and we reproduce them here in full (
quote beginning
):
“At Kaspersky, we believe that transparency and the continued implementation of concrete actions that demonstrate our ongoing commitment to integrity and trustworthiness to our customers are of the utmost importance.
Kaspersky is a privately held global cybersecurity company, and as a private company, Kaspersky has no ties to the Russian or any other government.
We believe that peaceful dialogue is the only possible tool to resolve conflicts. War is good for nobody.
We have relocated our data processing infrastructure to Switzerland: since 2018, malicious and suspicious files voluntarily passed on by users of Kaspersky products in Germany have been processed in two data centers in Zurich. These data centers meet best-in-class industry standards and ensure the highest level of security. In addition to our data processing facilities in Switzerland, the statistics submitted by users to Kaspersky may be processed via the Kaspersky Security Network in various countries around the world, including Canada and Germany. The security and integrity of our data services and technical practices have been confirmed by independent third-party assessments: by the SOC 2 audit by a “Big Four” auditor and by ISO 27001 certification and recent re-certification by TÜV Austria.
Kaspersky has set the industry benchmark for digital trust and transparency. Our customers have the opportunity to carry out a free technical and comprehensive review of our solutions:
Review our secure software development documentation, including threat analysis, security review, and application security testing procedures;
Insight into the source code of our leading solutions, including: Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS), our leading consumer product; Kaspersky Endpoint Security (KES), our leading enterprise solution; and Kaspersky Security Center (KSC), a control console for our enterprise products;
Reviewing all versions of our builds and AV database updates, and the types of information that Kaspersky products send to the cloud-based Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) in general;
Rebuild of the source code to ensure it conforms to publicly available modules;
Reviewing the results of an external audit of the company’s technical practices conducted by one of the Big Four accounting firms;
Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) review for Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS), our flagship consumer product, Kaspersky Endpoint Security (KES), our leading enterprise solution, and Kaspersky Security Center (KSC), a control panel for our enterprise products.
We are of the opinion that this decision (editor’s note: the BSI’s warning is meant) is not based on the technical evaluation of Kaspersky products – for which we have repeatedly campaigned at the BSI and throughout Europe – but rather it was taken for political reasons. We assure our partners and customers of the quality and integrity of our products and will work with the BSI to clarify the decision and address the concerns of the BSI or other regulators.”
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