2024-07-03 11:29:38
On Friday, the United States added 12 Russians who are employees of Kaspersky Lab to its sanctions list.
As reported by Day.Az with reference to Interfax, this was reported by the US Treasury Department.
“Today, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on 12 individuals who hold executive and management positions at JSC Kaspersky Lab,” the agency said in a press release.
“Today’s action against Kaspersky Lab’s leadership underscores our commitment to ensuring the integrity of our cyberspace and protecting our citizens from malicious cyber threats,” Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a press release.
In particular, the sanctions affected Kaspersky Lab’s executive director Andrey Tikhonov, business development director Andrey Efremov, corporate business director Kirill Astrakhan, the company’s HR director Marina Alekseeva, legal director Igor Chekunov, and deputy general director for strategy and economics Daniil Borshchev.
Earlier, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that the administration of President Joe Biden is imposing a complete ban on the use of Russian Kaspersky Lab software by American companies and citizens for national security reasons.
“We are announcing that after an extremely thorough investigation, we are taking action (…) that will prohibit Kaspersky Lab and all of its affiliates, subsidiaries, and parent company from providing cybersecurity and antivirus software anywhere in the United States,” American media outlets quote excerpts from Raimondo’s statement.
According to a Commerce Department document published in the federal register, Kaspersky Lab is prohibited from entering into any new agreements in the United States after July 20.
The company can provide existing customers with cybersecurity software and antivirus software until September 29, but after that, Kaspersky Lab will not be able to provide security updates.
Raimondo told reporters that the decision was made because “Russia has demonstrated that it has the capability and, indeed, the intent to use Russian companies like Kaspersky Lab to collect the personal information of Americans and weaponize it.”
An unnamed Commerce Department official told CNN that the department’s final decision to impose the ban “does not identify any specific instances in which Russian authorities used the company’s software to collect data.”
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