German intelligence agency BSI advises to stop using Kaspersky's antivirus software. Possibly the Russian software is vulnerable to cyber attacks. In the Netherlands, the use of the software is already banned in the Rijksoverheid .
In a press release (1), the BSI writes that because of the war in Ukraine, there is a chance that Russia could launch cyberattacks against Western users via Kaspersky.
Kaspersy is originally a Russian company. According to German intelligence, it is therefore conceivable that Kaspersky itself will carry out attacks, but also that the Kremlin will force the company to attack Western users. Moreover, the company may unknowingly be spied on or used for attacks itself.
Both organizations and individuals can become victims of attacks. Here, it is especially conceivable that government organizations and users that are part of the vital infrastructure in the West could be targeted.
Some countries banned Kaspersky even before the war in Ukraine. For example, the United States has banned the software since 2017 and the Netherlands since 2018 (2).
Kaspersky itself has always denied cooperating with the Kremlin, according to the BSI. To Techzine, the company responds that it does not agree that the German intelligence agency bases its opinion on political grounds, rather than the technical assessment of the software (2). Kaspersky is therefore willing to cooperate with the BSI to address concerns about the software's security.
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(1) https://www.expatica.com/de/uncategorized/germany-warns-against-russias-kaspersky-anti-virus-software-674065/
(2) https://www.techzine.nl/nieuws/security/481628/duitse-overheid-raadt-kaspersky-antivirus-af/
