Kaspersky gives US customers six months of free updates as a parting gift

Embattled Russian infosec shop Kaspersky is giving US customers six months of security updates for free as a parting gift as Uncle Sam kicks the antivirus maker out of the American market. In a farewell note to US users, the soon-to-be-banned biz thanked its customers for "choosing and trusting Kaspersky throughout the years …

[janklan]

Is it a trojan horse offer?

Offering a six month free service after being banned on national security grounds is what I would have done if I wanted to compel people to use my product just a little bit longer… to retain the access I have been banned for in the first place.

In other words, it feels dodgy.

[A.P. Veening]

Re: Is it a trojan horse offer?

I haven't seen any proof for the accusations and with their reputation it might as well be a good faith offer to ease a potential return (after the ban has been lifted).

[TReko]

Re: Is it a trojan horse offer?

Who knows? There is a possibility Kaspersky was refusing to whitelist malware written by certain US three letter agencies. EternalBlue being a case in point.

An example may be being made of them to other AV vendors who are thinking of detecting things they shouldn't.

So you can choose who spies on your PC, Russian FSB or some US TLA.

[TonyJ]

Re: Is it a trojan horse offer?

Not to forget that Kaspersky have been behind lifting the covers off of a few US groups such as the equation group.

It may well be that they've pissed off too many people in the right places, over the years.

[Dr.Flay]

Re: Is it a trojan horse offer?

Their software is open source so if you have some useful insight into the dodgy code, please tell the class.

[Rustbucket]

VPN?

After the cutoff date, would US Kaspersky customers still be able to get signature updates using a European VPN ?

[Yorick Hunt]

Re: VPN?

I don't think Kaspersky will be geoblocking the update servers (though US ISPs may be compelled to block access to Kaspersky netblocks and/or domains).

The issue will likely be more to do with your inability to renew/extend your licence, which will then have the knock-on effect of not allowing you to update.

Renewing through a non-US reseller though may well be entirely possible, even without resorting to a VPN.

[xyz123]

Re: VPN?

Remember 2 things.

1) if you deal with ANY government contracts, they can legally pull them if they find you using banned software products (even if thats not the real reason and they just wanna spite you)

2) Putin has already taken over various russian companies and converted them into state-sponsored espionage factories. Kaspersky may have good intentions, but when the KGB/Stasi arrive at their door with machine guns, they're going to immediately capitulate. And you might not even know about the 'new employees' now controlling the SOFTWARE updates, not just virus signatures.

[xyz123]

"Six months of FREE updates, courtesy of our TRUE CEO, Vladimir Putin"

"at this time we are promising not to infect your computer systems with malware/viruses/trojans and all sorts of webcam-activating spy software* *Terms and Conditions may change"

[Dr.Flay]

It is open source, so if you can point at the bad code that all the other security analysts seem to not be able to see, that would be useful.

[Brynstero0]

Not really a big deal

I have not used a 3rd party AV in years.

Defender works well enough and my family members are smart enough to not just click on stuff. So no real big issues with another 3rd party app being blocked from my systems

[Irongut]

Re: Not really a big deal

A dodgy advert can pwn your computer without you clicking on a thing other than the legitimate website that is showing the ad.

The only way to stay safe by not clicking on stuff is to stay offline.

[Evil Auditor]

Re: Not really a big deal

Well, at least your family members are smart enough. Let's hope they keep you safe, too.

^SCNR

But in a more perfect world with better software architecture we wouldn't need nor want 3rd party AV.

[Peter2]

Re: Not really a big deal

Anti virus software scans software running against a blacklist of things that shouldn't be running.

You can configure OS's (even Windows, with only tools available out of the box) to run nothing but a whitelist of programs and filetypes that you specify is safe, essentially making the anti virus blacklist pointless.

One could argue quite convincingly that cloud managed anti virus is worse than the disease it's supposed to protect against, as it offers the ability from the command console website (or by extension from the vendor or anybody hacking the website or command channels) to tell the anti virus client to execute commands on the computer it's supposedly protecting, including downloading and installing things making the AV client a potential attack vector even if the network it is protecting is otherwise secure.

[Dr.Flay]

Problem solved

The limitation is on buying the AV.

Don't buy it, swap to the free version.