A firm behind an antivirus software used by hundreds of thousands of Britons is controlled by Russian spies who have used it to access secret files in at least one British company, it has been claimed.
Cyber security technology produced by Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab is installed on computers around the world in a range of sensitive sectors including finance and energy.
But last year, Britain's National Cyber Security Centre warned government departments not to use it on systems that contain official secrets. It was also banned for use by US federal bodies amid claims it had been used by Russian spies to gain access to National Security Agency files.
A whistleblower has now claimed that the firm is controlled by Russian intelligence and that it has been able to access confidential files belonging to the British company, Gamma Group. Kaspersky denies the claims.
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On a related note, the 25-Jan-2018 msn.com news article Tech firms let Russia probe software widely used by U.S. government that SoulAsylum flagged <here> reports that Symantec has allowed Russian authorities full access to their source code in exchange for market access for years, and only stopped these source code reviews in late 2016.
...Major global technology providers SAP, Symantec and McAfee have allowed Russian authorities to hunt for vulnerabilities in software deeply embedded across the U.S. government, a Reuters investigation has found.
The practice potentially jeopardizes the security of computer networks in at least a dozen federal agencies, U.S. lawmakers and security experts said. It involves more companies and a broader swath of the government than previously reported.
In order to sell in the Russian market, the tech companies let a Russian defense agency scour the inner workings, or source code, of some of their products. Russian authorities say the reviews are necessary to detect flaws that could be exploited by hackers.
Until I hear hard evidence that Kaspersky IS compromised, I'll continue to use it.
It is the ONLY AV suite that has not given me problems, ever.