Russian cyber security software company, Kaspersky, bears the name of its CEO Eugene Kaspersky. The CEO had a big American dream. He wished that his company goes further than just trading anti-virus software to small businesses and users, and turn out to be a huge vendor to the Government of U.S. The Government of U.S. is one of the biggest buyers in the world for cyber security equipment.
Kaspersky installed KGSS, a U.S. subsidiary, in Arlington, Virginia that will be concentrated on winning that dream. He invested in flashy conferences with prestigious speakers comprising Michael Flynn. Flynn was briefly a national security adviser of President Donald Trump. Kaspersky wanted them join the U.S. groups of trade.
All of these efforts were taken to polish Kaspersky’s image and assist it turn out to be an established merchant for the U.S. Government in spite of its Russian roots, as per the sources familiar with the matter. But Eugene Kaspersky was unable to conquer lingering doubts among the officials of the U.S. intelligence that his company and he were, or might become, pawns of spy agencies in Russia. “Kaspersky has never assisted, nor will assist, any government in the globe with its cyber espionage efforts,” the company claimed to the media in an interview.
The American ambitions of Kaspersky were further battered by the prickly decline in relations of the U.S. and Russia following invasion of Crimea in Russia in 2014. And later, when the agencies of the U.S. intelligence stated that Russia had hacked the U.S. presidential election in 2016, the situation worsened.
Stating under oath in May before the U.S. Congress, the chiefs of the U.S. intelligence for the first time publicly showed uncertainty that products from Kaspersky might be trusted.
In previous month, FBI agents interrogated Kaspersky workers, inquiring whether they reported to executives from Russia and how much information from American users might be viewed by the Russian workers. This data was provided by 3 former and current employees. The FBI refused to comment last week. Last week, the General Services Administration of the U.S., detached Kaspersky from a list of approved merchants.