The Biden administration is set to ban sales of Kaspersky’s anti virus solution in the US later this week, Reuters has reported. The news agency spoke with a person familiar with the matter who said that an announcement will be made this Thursday due to concerns that the software is being used by critical infrastructure providers as well as state and local governments.
The US government is concerned that Kaspersky may have close ties with the Russian government which is currently waging a war against Ukraine which the US supports. The US government believes that Kaspersky software is a critical risk as it has privileged access to computer systems that could steal sensitive documents or even withhold important security updates leaving systems open to cyberattacks.
The report states that the restrictions on Kaspersky will ban downloads of software updates, resales, and licensing of the product. If the government goes ahead with the plan, the sanctions would kick in on September 29, 100 days after the publication. This delay should give businesses and other organizations time to find a replacement.
The ban will also affect white label products that integrate Kaspersky into software under a different name. Companies that will be affected will be notified so they can make plans.
The upcoming Kaspersky ban was decided upon following a national security probe into the software by the Commerce Department. A prohibition on Kaspersky software has been delayed due to a back and forth between the Commerce Department and Kaspersky over mitigating measures that the anti virus maker has proposed. Ultimately, the Commerce Department decided that no mitigating measures would be enough.
The Biden administration will ban Kaspersky using tools created by the Trump administration when it attempted to go after TikTok and WeChat. Those efforts were ultimately foiled by federal courts which halted the bans.
Source: Reuters | Image via Depositphotos.com