Jakarta (MidLand) – The US government announced it will ban the sale of Kaspersky antivirus in the country and asked Americans who use the software to switch to other vendors due to security risks.
The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said it imposed a “first-of-its-kind” ban, arguing that Kaspersky threatens US national security and user privacy because the company has based in Russia.
“Russia has demonstrated its ability, and even more so, its intent to exploit Russian companies like Kaspersky to collect and weaponize Americans’ personal information. And that’s why we were forced to take the actions we took today,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a call with reporters.
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News of the ban was first reported by Reuters ahead of the announcement. A Kaspersky spokesperson did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Kaspersky will be banned from selling its software to American consumers and businesses starting July 20, but the company will be able to provide software and security updates to existing customers until September 29.
After that, Kaspersky will no longer be allowed to provide software updates to US customers, according to Raimondo.
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“This means that your software and services will degrade. “That’s why I strongly recommend you look for an alternative to Kaspersky now,” Raimondo said.
Raimondo said U.S. consumers who already use Kaspersky antivirus are not breaking the law.
“U.S. individuals and companies who continue to use or possess existing Kaspersky products and services are not breaking the law, are not doing anything wrong, and are not subject to criminal or civil penalties,” Raimondo said.
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“However, I strongly urge you to immediately stop using that software and switch to an alternative to protect yourself, your data and your family,” he continued.
To provide information to consumers, Raimondo said the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice will work to inform U.S. consumers and that the U.S. government will create a website.
“So that those affected can find the information they need to understand why we do what we do and help them take the next steps,” he said.
A senior US Commerce Department official said during a news conference that the federal cybersecurity agency CISA will conduct contacts with critical infrastructure organizations that use Kaspersky software in their operations to help them find alternatives.
Officials also said they did not plan to mention any specific actions taken by Kaspersky that led to today’s decision.
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The ban announced Thursday (6/20) is the latest escalation in a long series of US government actions against Moscow-based Kaspersky.
In September 2017, Donald Trump’s administration banned US federal agencies from using Kaspersky software out of fear that the company would be forced to help Russian intelligence agencies.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Russian government hackers had stolen classified US documents stored on an intelligence contractor’s home computer because the computer had Kaspersky antivirus installed, marking the first known incident of espionage resulting from the use of the company’s software.
The decision to ban Kaspersky was made last year, according to an April 2023 Wall Street Journal report.
According to Kaspersky, the company has more than 400 million individual customers and more than 240,000 corporate customers worldwide.
The senior official declined to specify how many Kaspersky customers there are in the United States, but said they are a large number of customers, including critical infrastructure organizations as well as state and local government entities. This was broadcast by TechCrunch, Thursday (6/20).
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Translator: Fathur Rochman
Publisher: Siti Zulaikha
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