Best Buy, Office Depot drop Kaspersky
NEW YORK — Worries rippled through the consumer market for anti-virus software after the U.S. government banned federal agencies from using Kaspersky Labs software on Wednesday. Best Buy and Office Depot said they will no longer sell software made by the Russian company, although one security researcher said most consumers don’t need to be alarmed.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security cited concerns about possible ties between unnamed Kaspersky officials and the Kremlin and Russian intelligence services.
The department also noted that Russian law might compel Kaspersky to assist the government in espionage.
Kaspersky has denied any unethical ties with Russia or any government. It said Wednesday that its products have been sold at Best Buy for a decade. Kaspersky software is widely used by consumers in both free and paid versions, raising the question of whether those users should follow the U.S. government’s lead.
Nicholas Weaver, a computer security researcher at the University of California at Berkeley called the U.S. government decision “prudent;” he had argued for such a step in July. But he added by email that “for most everybody else, the software is fine.”
The biggest risk to U.S. government computers is if Moscow-based Kaspersky is subject to “governmentmandated malicious update,” Weaver wrote this summer.
Another expert, though, suggested that consumers should also uninstall Kaspersky software to avoid any potential risks. Michael Sulmeyer, director of a cybersecurity program at Harvard, noted that anti-virus software has deep access to one’s computer and network.