United States: The US has announced plans to ban the sale of antivirus software from the Russian company Kaspersky because of its suspected ties to the Kremlin.
According to research, the company’s influence from Moscow poses a serious risk to US infrastructure and services, as stated by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Thursday.
She claimed that Russia’s “capacity and… intent to collect and weaponize the personal information of Americans” was the reason the US had to respond.
“Kaspersky will generally no longer be able to, among other activities, sell its software within the United States or provide updates to software already in use,” the Commerce Department stated.
Kaspersky denied any involvement in any activity that would have endangered US security, saying instead that it planned to use “all legally available options” to oppose the ban.
The proposal bans or restricts transactions between US companies and IT companies from “foreign adversary” countries like China and Russia by utilizing sweeping powers established by the Trump administration.
Effectively, as of September 29, the proposal prohibits the download of software updates, resale, and product licensing. Within 30 days of the announcement, new operations will also be barred.
If sellers or resellers break these rules, the Commerce Department will punish them. In addition, two Russian and one UK-based Kaspersky units will be listed by the Commerce Department for allegedly collaborating with Russian military intelligence.
US authorities have had the corporation as a target for a long time. Due to purported links to Russian intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security prohibited its flagship antivirus program from being used on federal networks in 2017.
According to the Commerce Department, the worldwide company, which has its headquarters in Moscow, services over 400 million users and 270,000 corporate clients across more than 200 nations through offices spread throughout 31 countries.