The US has announced plans to ban the sale of Kaspersky antivirus software because of its ties to the Kremlin.
“Moscow’s influence on the company was found to pose a significant risk to US infrastructure and services,” – said Minister of Trade Gina Raimondo.
She said the U.S. was forced to take action because of “Russia’s ability to collect and use Americans’ personal information.”
“Kaspersky will no longer be able to sell its software within the United States or provide updates to software already in use,” – reports the Ministry of Trade.
In turn, the head of Kaspersky said that he intends to use “all legal options” to fight the ban, and denied participation in any activity that threatened the security of the United States. Reuters writes about this with reference to its own sources.
The planned measures will effectively ban the download of software updates, resale and licensing of the product from September 29 and new business will be restricted for 30 days after the announcement. At the same time, sellers and resellers who violate the restrictions will be fined.
The US Department of Commerce will also list two Russian and one British Kaspersky unit for alleged cooperation with the Russian military.
It should be recalled that Kaspersky has long been a target for US regulators. In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security banned its flagship antivirus product from federal networks because of ties to Russian intelligence. The number of affected customers in the US is confidential business information.
Headquartered in Moscow, Kaspersky has offices in 31 countries around the world, serving more than 400 million users and 270,000 corporate customers in more than 200 countries, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
