While its certainly true that we need to worry about these Russian products, the damage that the NSA has done is enormous.<p>Can I trust Cisco VPNs? Can I trust Windows? Can I trust my router? The NSA opens boxes in shipment to break their security, and they have the resources to do a lot more.<p>Unfortunately for us in the U.S., the NSA threat is a real one, not a hypothetical.<p>And a question for the people who know more than me: is there any IT vendor who hasn't been corrupted by the NSA, the Russians or the Chinese?
One can easily imagine reading an article like this published on a Russian site, with 'Kaspersky' replaced with 'Symantec' and 'FSB' with 'NSA'.
Despite its statement of fact in the title, this is in the opinion section and is riddled with innuendo, inaccuracies, and fearmongering, starting with the oft-repeated and incorrect idea that Russia "hacked our election". This is of course not the case - some email was hacked and it exposed some of the illegal/unethical dealings of a candidate. Had the leaked emails all been about how hard that candidate was going to work for the American people, perhaps the result would have been more to the liking of the author of this piece.<p>Perhaps it is a bad idea for the US government to use Kapersky software, and perhaps it isn't. I wouldn't be able to determine that by reading this opinion, because it contains no facts backing up the author's fears.
So, Kaspersky also did lots of detailed work uncovering malware from "the equation group" which was basically the NSA (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_Group" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_Group</a>).<p>I'm honestly wondering if the reason they say not to use them is because they detect NSA things.
Let's say I believe the good Senator from NH, that Kaspersky is evil.<p>What she has failed to show is how are Kaspersky's actions worse than those of Cisco, Juniper, Microsoft, Intel, etc.? Can she state, with conviction, that the NSA does not have backdoors in US products? That the NSA is not exploiting holes (which they could get fixed by the vendors, but aren't) ?<p>BTW: the US has been "hacking" elections one way or the other all across the globe for decades. I find this uproar in the US about being hacked laughable, as we've been doing it for so many years! Sure, we may not use the exact same techniques are the Russians, but we do meddle in other countries' elections all the time.
I really do not expect such journalism from New York times,<p>>But a backdoor is not necessary. When a user installs Kaspersky Lab software, the company gets an all-access pass to every corner of a user’s computer network, including all applications, files and emails.<p>Isn't this true for all antiviruses.<p>>The Kremlin hacked our presidential election, is waging a cyberwar against our NATO allies and is probing opportunities to use similar tactics against democracies worldwide<p>Any proof for this?<p>Just realized that this was written by a Democratic Senator who took a stand against Kaspersky. That explains the lack of balance in the article and the tone.<p>Also. I would have a problem with <i>any one</i> having my data, be it Symantec and NSA or Kaspersky and KGB.
> The Kremlin hacked our presidential election,<p>That's the first line in the article and is stated as fact, what's the evidence for that? How exactly did Kremlin hack our election?<p>Are they implying had it not been for their hackers we might have had Hillary as a president. I remember her campaigning in California multiple times and but I guess those sneaky Russian hackers changed her itinerary to never visit Wisconsin. They also forced her to setup that stupid server and send classified information over it. Then held the hands of her staffers as they smashed those blackberries with hammers.<p>Saw someone else here stopped reading at that line, and can't blame them. This is becoming like the WMD and the Iraq War story. At some point it becomes counterproductive to repeat it because it starts to work in the opposite direction. No doubt there it was a very well thought out PR campaign, but it's time to wrap up and move on.
I think NSA is such a danger and threat, aside from installing backdoors and weakening security, the major reason is that it legitimizes such behavior, so that others like China, Russia, Iran etc, can do the same and not even blush about it.<p>As someone said, Kaspersky is danger because it is revealing NSA tools.<p>(and I can't write short sentences :) sorry)
This is not a news article. This is an op-ed piece by a US Senator. The author <i>may</i> be concerned about NSA/CIA inserting their spyware into US products, and <i>may</i> also be concerned about various US intelligence agencies spying on US citizens. Neither of these topics are significant to point the Senator is making.
The point of the article is that Russian spyware is a security threat on the US. It is an op-ed piece, you can agree or disagree as to how credible the threat is ... and if you are from NH you can get extra credit and can take that into consideration when you vote on her candidacy next time she comes up for reelection.
> But a backdoor is not necessary<p>> the company gets an all-access pass to every corner of a user’s computer network, including all applications, files and emails.<p>Isn't that a possible definition of a backdoor?<p>> is waging a cyberwar<p>Cyberwar is a codeword for "I have no idea what I am talking about".<p>> I hope to amend it to ban Kaspersky software from all of the federal government.<p>They should ban all proprietary software instead, that way they will avoid the NSA backdoors as well.
The New York Times is on a roll!<p>Erik Prince editorial on how military contractors are the solution to everything.<p>This article is just pure unadulterated bullshit. A propaganda piece from the US Government, nothing else.