Ride the Lightning

Kaspersky Sues U.S. Government Over Ban of its Software

December 20, 2017

As Reuters reported on December 18th, Moscow-based security software maker Kaspersky Lab has asked a U.S. federal court to overturn a Trump administration ban on use of its products in government networks, alleging the move deprived the company of due process.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in September issued a directive ordering civilian government agencies to remove Kaspersky software from their networks within 90 days because of concern among U.S. officials that the software could enable Russian espionage and threaten national security.

The appeal is part of an ongoing campaign by Kaspersky to refute allegations the company is vulnerable to Kremlin influence. The company has repeatedly denied it has ties to any government and said it would not help a government with cyber espionage.

"DHS has harmed Kaspersky Lab's reputation and its commercial operations without any evidence of wrongdoing by the company," the company's founder, Eugene Kaspersky, said in an open letter to the Homeland Security agency published Monday.

The lawsuit alleges that the government largely relied on uncorroborated news media reports as evidence in a review of Kaspersky software. It asks the court to overturn the ban and also declare that the Russian company's products do not pose a security threat to U.S. government computers.

The value of Kaspersky's software sales to the U.S. government totaled less than $54,000, or about 0.03 percent of its U.S. subsidiary's sales in the United States, according to the complaint. Actually, that small figure surprised me.

Still, the allegations have hurt Kaspersky's much bigger consumer software business, prompting retailers such as Best Buy Co to pull Kaspersky products.

Kaspersky said in October that it would submit the source code of its software and future updates for inspection by independent parties. U.S. officials have said that step, while welcome, would not be sufficient.

If there is real evidence of any collusion, I would be surprised. But I am always prepared to eat crow pie.

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