I was never notified: Kaspersky anti-virus is being BANNED in the U.S. I have until the end of September to find another software!

9/22/24 | Me, Myself, and I

[EinNYC]

I have been happily using Kaspersky anti-virus software to protect my computer for years. It never caused me any problems. Other softwares, notably NORTON, allowed a virus to infect my computer years ago, and could not be removed by home measures. So the BIDEN administration has decided that Kaspersky is too much of a risk by a hostile foreign government to continue to operate in the U.S. and now the company has to close shop in the U.S. and fire all its employees.

I haven't shopped for a new anti-virus software for years. Which ones should I look at? I obviously only have a few days to pick and acquire one before the September 29 deadline rolls around.

PC Magazine is among the many sources for this news: "The White House has made the ban official by banning the sale, resale, and licensing of any Kaspersky security products or services within the US or by US persons.

The Commerce Department called the sales ban the "first of its kind" following a lengthy investigation into the antivirus provider. It found "that the company’s continued operations in the United States presented a national security risk—due to the Russian Government’s offensive cyber capabilities and capacity to influence or direct Kaspersky’s operations— that could not be addressed through mitigation measures short of a total prohibition."

The Commerce Department created a website dedicated to answering questions about the action. Users and companies that continue to assist Kaspersky in the prohibited transactions risk facing civil and criminal penalties.

Kaspersky says the White House's "decision does not affect the company's ability to sell and promote cyber threat intelligence offerings and or trainings in the US."

"Kaspersky believes that the Department of Commerce made its decision based on the present geopolitical climate and theoretical concerns, rather than on a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kaspersky's products and services," the company added. "Kaspersky does not engage in activities which threaten US national security and, in fact, has made significant contributions with its reporting and protection from a variety of threat actors that targeted US interests and allies."

So, the Biden administration feels it's OK to let millions of illegals, totally unknown to us, into this country but sicced the Commerce Department on Kaspersky. Based on what, I'd like to know.

[ifinnegan]

Call the wambulance.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I use ESET NOD32 for my Windows desktop, though MS’s built-in Windows Security is probably more than good enough.

[Political Junkie Too]

After reading your post I looked into this. I'm also a long-time Kaspersky user.

It looks like we are going to be automatically migrated to a different product called UltraAV sometime in the next week.

-PJ

[who_would_fardels_bear]

People stopped using Kaspersky years ago because of “Russia! Russia! Russia!”

[NonValueAdded]

Understandable, given pagergate. Assuming, of course, that the US company has not broken its ties with Russia.

This does open the challenge that similar actions should be taken with China. But would Xiden do that? Maybe when pigs fly.

[Political Junkie Too]

Kaspersky got a bad rap and was called Russian spyware when it caught documents that two different NSA contractors illegally took home and put on their home computers. The NSA puts a little piece of code into their electronic documents to identify the documents, and Kaspersky's heuristic analyzer found this and reported it as potential spyware.

Because the heuristic analyzer sends bits of code to their home servers for deep analysis, the NSA initially tried to cover up the crimes of their contractors by calling Kaspersky Russian spyware. Eventually, the FBI worked with Kaspersky to catch the NSA thieves, and Kaspersky ultimately moved their servers out of Russia to avoid the appearance of working with Russian intelligence.

-PJ

[Gene Eric]

You’re not paranoid enough to be sharing such details…

[erlayman]

I thought they had an agreement switching over to Bitdefender ?

[ansel12]

Why not do what the magazine recommends and use Bitdefender Antivirus?

I would get rid of Kaspersky before it downloads Ultra Av onto your computer which people says it is replacing itself with.

Personally I use Avast free with tough settings and occasional full scans and boot scans, with an occasional Malwarebytes free scan and an occasional Superantispyware free scan, and an occasional Microsoft Defender Antivirus full scan and boot scan and and keep my Windows OS always updated, when I work on people’s computers who don’t know much I just let them use Microsoft Defender Antivirus since they won’t keep up with their Avast if I put it on their PC.

I used to be super thorough with all that security but it has been so many years since I ran into a virus problem that I only do the scans when I think about it a few times a month.

[Political Junkie Too]

I would get rid of Kaspersky before it downloads Ultra Av onto your computer which people says it is replacing itself with.

And I just renewed my Kaspersky subscription back in March for the next three years.

-PJ

[ansel12]

Are you going to stay the Ultra Av or what?

[Openurmind]

“So, the Biden administration feels it’s OK to let millions of illegals, totally unknown to us, into this country but sicced the Commerce Department on Kaspersky. Based on what, I’d like to know.”

Probably because it Works. It won’t let our own government in the backdoor like they want. When it comes to internet security the worst threat actor is our own. They are right now implementing tools and controls that would make China jealous. I suspect a lot of the antivirus companies are now allowing them official stealth access and they are going to ban those who do not.

[rarestia]

Microsoft embedded Windows Defender AV into the operating system starting in Windows 10. There’s no need for a third-party AV, and in some cases, it can conflict with the native OS AV. I’d recommend sticking with Defender, as it’s updated as part of monthly updates.

[House Atreides]

Looks like Kaspersky is being penalized because its security software potentially detects NSA intrusion into its clients’ computers. The Deep State can’t have that here.

[Political Junkie Too]

I don't know. This is all new to me. I never received an email from Kaspersky when this all came down, so I'm only now thinking about it.

Actually, I see no harm in trying it out since it's already paid for. Then I need to see which features from Kaspersky that I really liked and see if UltraAV matches it or not.

One thing I did get use to was the protected browser when doing financial stuff like banking. It prevented viruses from screen-scraping and keylogging when entering account info.

I also use the password manager. I never used the Kaspersky VPN (which was an upsell); I've been using NordVPN for that. They also offer 50 Gb of cloud storage, but I have MS Office 365 and Dropbox (free) for that.

So yeah, I think I'll try it out just to see. The irony is that I only started using Kaspersky in the first place because I went with a free A/V program from Best Buy years ago that I got with a purchase and then that software was discontinued and Best Buy replaced it with Kaspersky. Prior to that, I was using ZoneAlarm (but that's going a long way back).

I stayed away from the MacAfees and Nortons when they first came out and I'm in no rush to move to them now.

-PJ

[DesertRhino]

The FBI probably has a recommended antivirus they prefer you to get! /s

[ansel12]

Here is an article on it, no one knows anything about it.

Kaspersky Forces Users to UltraAV After U.S. Ban, Is This the Right Move?
https://hackerdose.com/security/kaspersky-forces-ultraav-after-us-ban/

[Political Junkie Too]

Thanks. I read similar articles, but not one that raised the anxiety level as much as this one does.

-PJ

[Sirius Lee]

Kaspersky is too much of a risk by a hostile foreign government to continue to operate in the U.S. and now the company has to close shop in the U.S. and fire all its employees.

Their antivirus must be effective at blocking unconstitutional spying and hacking by the derpstate.