Kaspersky co-founder, Eugene Kaspersky, has well-known historical ties to Russia’s intelligence services. This means providers of telecoms equipment could theoretically send data on essentially the entire population of a nation, as well as the businesses operating within its borders. The underlying reasoning for these national security concerns is that the Chinese government could theoretically order companies to relinquish data to authorities, offering no chance for refusal. Huawei and ZTE have both strenuously denied the allegations brought against them. The US also imposed similar restrictions which, in November 2022, culminated in a blanket ban on sales and imports of Huawei and ZTE products in the country.Įfforts to uproot Chinese telecoms equipment from the US first began during Barrack Obama’s presidency and were continued throughout Donald Trump’s and now Joe Biden’s administrations. This led to an order to rip and replace Huawei’s equipment from said network, favouring other vendors like Nokia and Ericsson. Nevertheless, Kaspersky could potentially soon face the same restrictions as the aforementioned Chinese firms.Ĭoncerns around Huawei and ZTE started in 2018 after the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said they both presented a national security risk, given their equipment’s heavy presence in the nation’s telecoms network. Much like the fears surrounding Huawei and ZTE, the national security concerns surrounding Kaspersky are largely theoretical.Īt least, no concrete evidence that it has been used for Russian spying has ever been made available to the public. The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security told Reuters that the department “is committed to fully exercising its authorities to protect Americans' sensitive data, and to working with Congress in a bipartisan way to adapt to evolving risks". Sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story, did not provide details of when the Biden administration’s decision would be made. It did not reply to ITPro’s request for comment. Moscow-headquartered Kaspersky has consistently and vehemently denied the numerous allegations regarding fears it could be used as a spying tool by the Russian government.
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