From Russia with . . .

“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Surely Lenin would have had a good laugh over the fact that it has taken this long for the U.S. government to move to ban all federal agencies from using software made by the Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab.

A directive issued Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security gives agencies 90 days to develop a plan for removing the software.

“The risk that the Russian government, whether acting on its own or in collaboration with Kaspersky, could capitalize on access provided by Kaspersky products to compromise federal information and information systems directly implicates U.S. national security,” the DHS statement said.

Kaspersky, a Moscow-based company founded by a former Russian intelligence agent, has its U.S. headquarters in Woburn.

Back in May six of this nation’s top intelligence officials testified at a Senate hearing that they would not feel comfortable with Kaspersky software on their computers.

In an op-ed in The New York Times earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) noted, “I cannot disclose the classified assessments that prompted the intelligence chief ’s response.” But she added there was more than enough evidence in the public record to establish links between the firm and the Russian government. Shaheen sponsored legislation that would prohibit the federal government from using the firm’s products.

Now keep in mind there are more than 400 million users of the firm’s software around the globe and, according to Bloomberg News, half of them may not even know it. In addition to government agencies, the firm has been marketing operating systems for critical infrastructure such as electric grids and pipelines.

DHS is expected to allow Kaspersky to file a written response to its order. But it’s likely Russian interference in the 2016 election has just claimed another victim — this time a Russian one.