US government crackdown threatens
KASPERSKY’S
in Washington where prominent US officials including Flynn, a former Defence Intelligence Agency director, former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden and House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul discussed cybersecurity issues.
The company privately courted US intelligence and law enforcement officials by sending experts to brief them on nation-state hacking campaigns uncovered by the firm, according to people present at those meetings.
“They came to us and said, ‘ We want to change our image, we know people don’t trust us’,” said one former senior Obama administration official who took part in some of those meetings.
But the suspicions never subsided. When the company sought to join one Washington-based technology trade organisation, it was “politely told it couldn’t happen,” according to an industry source with direct knowledge of the matter.
The source said industry group officials had an inside joke: “Kaspersky (membership) is like having the Kremlin join.”
Not coincidentally, Kaspersky’s government sales effort never gained traction. In an email to Reuters, the company noted “complexities associated with doing business with North America’s government sector.”
Privately held Kaspersky said its US revenue, most of which comes from selling anti-virus software to consumers and small businesses, slipped from $164 million in 2014 to about $156 million in 2016.
Some US national security experts say Kaspersky is being treated unfairly. Lee said he has long been bothered by the “public shaming” of Kaspersky by people who make allegations without presenting evidence.
The US government has the right to choose not to use Kaspersky products for any reason, he said, but “the way they are doing it” is wrong.
“I don’t believe in geographic restrictions that say, ‘Because Kaspersky is a Russian-based company, therefore it is bad,’” said former White House cybersecurity policy coordinator Michael Daniel. “You would want your decision to be based on actual corporate bad behaviour.”