The software company Kaspersky has been facing a harsh wind for some time after it became known that the Russian secret service infiltrated the security software . Now another state prohibits the use of Kaspersky software with Lithuania.
After the ban in the US and a recommendation to discontinue the software in the UK, it is now the third time that Kaspersky has made such a demand for a government headline. Already in December, the policy in Lithuania had decided to limit the use of Kaspersky software for security reasons. The government in Vilnius then decided a few weeks ago a ban on numerous government and non-governmental institutions from the financial, energy and transport industries, as these are considered particularly vulnerable and worth protecting. The ban on these key industries has now come into force.
"Serious risk"
As the Handelsblatt reports with reference to a Lithuanian newspaper, the ban in Lithuania is now being implemented. Effective immediately, the use of the security solution is restricted by the authorities. The background to this is officially the fear of endangering national security if third parties could gain access to sensitive data without authorization via Kaspersky software. Such a serious risk should not be taken until Kaspersky could be considered safe again.
"Critical Information Infrastructure Managers are no longer using or removing this software," said Rytis Rainys, the head of the Cybersecurity Center, on Saturday in an official statement from the BNS agency.
In recent months, the allegations against the Russian anti-virus manufacturer Kaspersky had accumulated. Kaspersky has already taken legal action and is suing the government's decisions. In addition, Kaspersky considers the whole thing a campaign against him and his company, in which the media vigorously involved.
Looks like another case where the treatment is worse than the disease. I've always found that running antivirus software does more harm to my computers than viruses ever have.