
Judge Dismisses Kaspersky Suit Challenging Software Ban - wglb
https://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-dismisses-kaspersky-suit-challenging-software-ban-1527711772
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Someone1234
I just wish they'd release what they have on Kaspersky. All they've given us
is vague assertions.

The only specific thing I know is that a CIA contractor took some CIA tools
home had Kaspersky installed, and had it setup to auto-submit samples, so
naturally it detected the hacktools and submitted them...

But the implications have been that Kaspersky has been actively used to spy on
US agencies and companies. But again no technical information has been
published, which would be hugely damaging to Kaspersky's reputation.

There's three possibilities:

\- They're right and Kaspersky is working for Russian intelligence (but the US
aren't releasing technical information for unknown reasons).

\- They're doing this to promote American and European alternatives which can
be manipulated by Western intelligence (e.g. exclude state sponsored malware
from definitions).

\- It is just a "red scare" within the US DoD, and they aren't releasing
technicals because they have no technicals. It is just playing Telephone
between analysts using vague assertions and feeding off of one another (see
Iraq War).

All I am asking for is "Here's a technical paper explaining exactly what we
caught Kaspersky doing." If we got that and it held up, I'd be fully onboard.

~~~
smsm42
> I just wish they'd release what they have on Kaspersky. All they've given us
> is vague assertions.

That's probably what they have. But imagine you're a Government Official and
the Member of The Press asks you: "Do you know that your office is running
software produced by Russians? The same Russians that hacked our elections?!
And not just by any Russians, but Russians with links with Russian Government,
which includes Russian Military, Russian Intelligence Service and controls
Russian Nukes?!"

Of course, you could start explaining that doing business with Russian
government (aka "links") is not weird for a Russian company, especially a
major one and near-monopoly on the local market, and you can not declare every
Russian a spy just because Russian spies exist and sometimes even mess with
some American interests, even though nothing of the sort happened in the
election - you can try to do all that and earn a headline "Government Official
N. Is Soft on Russia - Idiocy or Corruption?" And God forbid it turns out you
visited an industry conference in Russia 3 years ago or attended, among other
500 people, a reception which (unknowingly to you) was paid by a Russian
oligarch living in New York...

Or you can ban Kaspersky software - which has a bunch of viable local
alternatives anyway - and earn a headline "Government Official N. is
Exercising Reasonable Prudence in the Face of the Red Threat". Which one would
you choose?

> They're doing this to promote American and European alternatives which can
> be manipulated by Western intelligence

Could be but more likely they are just opportunist and doing CYAing.

> It is just a "red scare" within the US DoD, and they aren't releasing
> technicals because they have no technicals.

Rem acu tetigisti.

> All I am asking for is "Here's a technical paper explaining exactly what we
> caught Kaspersky doing

Don't hold your breath.

~~~
reacweb
And Russians are using products produced by Google, the same Google that has
deep relationship with government and military contracts. With your reasoning,
every countriy should ban products of GAFA.

~~~
cf498
They most definitively should.

In that case we even know, that US companies are be forced to cooperate and
are legally barred from reporting it. Any foreign government using commercial
US software for sensitive information is at least reckless.

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jaytaylor
Paywall bypass: [https://archive.is/bTGtX](https://archive.is/bTGtX)

------
nimbius
Predictable. No word yet on whether the evil witch floats or not.

The entire thing is a fairly transparent attempt to gin up some anti-russian
sentiment in the wake of a growing presidential scandal under active
investigation that keeps turning up damning evidence. At best it pulls the
administration out of the fire for a few days but frankly all its doing is
insisting the US is open for business until we find a big enough bus to throw
you under for our own political gain.

Same with Huawei. Its difficult to cast an outright ban on import as anything
less than telecom players waving their hands and crying red-scare to an
audience of congressmen that are either old enough to remember duck-and-cover
drills or ancient enough to have actually participated in some of the
clandestine blacklisting and CIA funded government overthrow in central
America.

------
myf01d
Who needs proofs when it comes to Russia. It's mordor according to the
american media and deep state. Everything that stems from it represents Dark
Lord aka Putin. Let's just keep inventing stories about it until we all
eventually believe our own lies. Maybe inventing more stories about how good
we are and how evil they are will make our beliefs stronger like it has always
worked throughout history.

~~~
TheCoelacanth
Why give Russia the benefit of the doubt when there are many proven instances
of wrongdoing on their part?

