The military invasion of Ukraine it is triggering a wave of international economic reactions against Russia. This Tuesday, Germany has launched a warning message against the use of antivirus systems from Kasperskya decision that the Russian software company has criticized as being made “for political reasons”.
The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) issued a statement recommending “replace” Kaspersky applications “with alternative products” because of what they consider “a high risk of a cyber attack from Russia”. In his message, he points out that the company could operate as a hypothetical Trojan horse of the Kremlin in European IT systems. “A Russian IT manufacturer may itself carry out offensive operations, be forced to attack systems against its will, be spied on as a victim of a cyber operation without its knowledge, or be misused as a tool for attacks against its own customers. ” reads the statement.
The Berlin statement has already had other repercussions. Frankfurt soccer club Eintrach has announced that it is withdrawing Kaspersky as its main sponsor. At the government level, the Italian Security Agency has not referred directly to the company but has asked “to review the links with Russian companies of technology“.
Banned in the US and the EU
Founded in 1997, the Russian firm is one of the most recognized in the world of cyber security -it is regularly present at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona- and has more than 400 million users worldwide, 240,000 of which are third-party companies. However, both United States as the European Union (EU) banned the use of Kaspersky systems on government computers in 2018, considering them “malicious”. Both blocks then assured that the measure was due to alleged links with the Russian government.
The company has responded to the German decision by denying the accusations and stressing that it is a decision “for political reasons and not because it is based on the technical evaluation of our products.” It also points out that, although its central servers are housed in Moscow, part of its computer equipment that processes user data is installed in countries such as Switzerland, Canada or Germany.
The founder of the firm, Eugene Kasperskyhas been criticized on social networks for not directly condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although he has expressed his rejection of the war.