Kaspersky Lab

[8] The Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) has led the discovery of sophisticated espionage platforms conducted by nations, such as Equation Group and the Stuxnet worm.

[12][13][14] In 2017, it was alleged that hackers working for the Russian government stole confidential data from the home computer of a US National Security Agency contractor via Kaspersky antivirus software.

In response to these and other allegations, Kaspersky began to solicit independent reviews and verification of its source code, and relocated core infrastructure and customer data from Russia to Switzerland.

[17] On 20 June 2024, the US announced that it would prohibit Kaspersky from selling or distributing updates to its software to US customers which caused the cybersecurity company to leave the US market the following month.

[49][50] In June 2023, Kaspersky Lab said many of its senior staff and managers were hit by an ongoing attack that it first suspected in early 2023 and has compromised thousands of iPhones.

[58] The Antivirus software includes malware protection, monitors the PC for suspicious program behavior, and warns users about potentially dangerous websites.

[59][60] Total Security adds parental controls, adult website filters, diagnostic tools, a Password Manager application, and other features.

The International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats in which Datuk Mohd Noor Amin acts as the chairman, announced the appointment of Harry Cheung – Managing Director of Kaspersky Lab, APAC – as the Goodwill Ambassador for Greater China.

[95] In the December 2011 version of AV-Comparatives' annual reports, Kaspersky Lab's software achieved the highest overall ranking and has earned the AV Comparatives' "Product of the Year" award.

[98] Later in 2013, Kaspersky earned the product of the year award from AV-Comparatives and the highest score among Enterprise solutions in a Dennis Technology Labs report.

According to IEEE Spectrum, the circumstances "strongly suggest" the worm was developed by the United States and Israel to damage centrifuges in Iran's nuclear-enrichment program.

[115] According to the researchers in Kaspersky Lab, the malware had infected an estimated 1,000 to 5,000 machines worldwide[116][117] when asked by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union to investigate reports of a virus affecting Iranian Oil Ministry computers.

Kaspersky never verified the source of the software, but it is suspected to have been developed by the National Security Agency (NSA) to transmit keystrokes, Skype calls and other data.

[119][120][116] Kaspersky created algorithms to find similar malware and found Gauss that July, which collected and transmitted data from devices infected by bluetooth or USB drives.

The group incorporated sophisticated spying software into the firmware of hard drives at banks, government agencies, nuclear researchers and military facilities, in countries that are frequent targets of US intelligence efforts.

[137] That same day, Kaspersky announced the discovery of a hacker group it called Carbanak, which was targeting banks and moving millions of dollars into fake accounts.

The software gave police enforcement a "menu of features" to access emails, text messages, keystrokes, call history and other data.

[145][146] In 2016, Kaspersky uncovered the Poseidon Group, which would infiltrate corporations with malware using phishing emails, then get hired by the same company as a security firm to correct the problem.

[148][149][150][151][152][153] In 2020, Kaspersky published research on the MATA Toolset Campaign, a sophisticated cyber-espionage framework targeting multiple operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

MATA's capabilities allowed attackers to execute a wide range of malicious activities, including exfiltrating sensitive data from corporate networks and compromising financial systems.

These packages were disguised as legitimate tools and lured victims through social engineering tactics, including AI (OpenAI's ChatGPT) chatbots offering assistance.

Kaspersky attributed the campaign to an advanced persistent threat (APT) group but refrained from naming a specific actor, though evidence suggested ties to state-sponsored espionage.

[161][162] CloudSorcerer APT and its EastWind campaign were identified by Kaspersky in 2024.The malware leveraged public cloud infrastructure to perform large-scale data exfiltration and surveillance.

In October 2017, reports alleged that hackers working for the Russian government stole confidential data from the home computer of an US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor via Kaspersky antivirus software.

Kaspersky denied the allegations, reporting that the software had detected Equation Group malware samples which it uploaded to its servers for analysis in its normal course of operation.

[166] In September 2017, the Department of Homeland Security issued an order prohibiting the use and purchase of Kaspersky software by US federal agencies, and required their removal from systems within 90 days.

[17] In December, President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, which included a ban on Kaspersky software on federal civilian and military computers.

[173] On 20 June 2024, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced that Kaspersky Labs would be prohibited from selling or providing updates for its software to customers in the United States.

The sanction is performed under executive orders issued by Trump and current president Joe Biden, which seek to protect the personal data of US citizens from nations designated as "foreign adversaries" to the United States.

[175] From July 17, the company offered US customers six months of free updates for the Kaspersky security suites, password manager, parental controls software, and VPN.

Home screen of Kaspersky Internet Security