Business and government have, let's say, an interesting relationship. Ask any Chinese tech company these days. But as they lose billions and billions, companies from warmongering countries like Russia are finding it even harder to defend themselves. How can Russian companies support Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine?
You can say they can't, but that just proves you haven't studied history. When money and morals are balanced, money usually wins. To give an example, American companies such as General Motors, Ford, Coca-Cola and IBM supported National Socialist Germany throughout World War II.
Actually. Search it.
So it is not too surprising when we see Kaspersky's creator, Moscow City-based security chief Eugene Kaspersky, trying to prevent Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Twitter: "We welcome the start of negotiations to resolve the current situation in Ukraine and we hope that they will lead to a cessation". of hostilities and a compromise".
"Current situation ??" It is an invasion. As I write this, the latest Russian cruelty is the bombing of a Mariupol theater used as a civilian shelter. There is no ethical defense to support the present Russian regime.
And, commitment? There is no commitment here. It is about Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempt to turn back the clock and recreate Ukraine as part of a Russian-dominated Soviet empire.
Of course, it takes courage to stand up to Putin. Ultimately, realizing that his invasion was failing, he threatened to rid Russia of "scum and traitors." But while that's certainly a reason to keep your head down and your mouth shut if you live in Russia, that hasn't stopped true patriots like Russian chronicler Marina Ovsyannikova, who interrupted the Russian Channel One national news program to tell the people that their government was lying to them about the war.
Still, many Russian companies, including Kaspersky, try to continue business as usual. Sorry, war is not like always and at all times.
The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has just warned everyone to stop using Kaspersky's antivirus programs and advises users to "replace them with alternative products." Because? For the obvious: you can't trust them.
I mean, really, these are "security" programs from an opponent of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Kaspersky himself graduated from an elite KGB cryptology school and was a former Soviet military intelligence software engineer. His past is no secret. It's been known for a few years. But, until recently, we in the West could pretend that the Russian elite was like . This illusion caught fire in the suburbs of Kharkiv and Kyiv.
Even if Kaspersky, which has not condemned the invasion, is only trying to make a fair ruble, the simple fact is that antivirus software must, as BSI points out, "maintain a persistent, encrypted and unverifiable connection to the manufacturer's servers." " for updates. This connection is a highway to the heart of your PCs and servers.
Or, as the BSI stated: "A Russian computer manufacturer may carry out offensive operations on its own, be forced to attack target systems against its will, or be spied on as a victim of a cyber operation without its knowledge or as a tool for attacks against its service customers". So even if Kaspersky, the person and the company, is as innocent as it seems, its technology could easily be taken and used to abuse its Western users.
Kaspersky, for its part, insists that this is all nonsense and that you should continue to use its products. He argues that there is no "objective evidence" to prove that Kaspersky is useless. In any case, there is plenty of objective evidence that the government under which Kaspersky operates is doing evil.
We also know that Kaspersky's Internet-connected software in Berlin, London or New York is only milliseconds away from its servers in Russia. There is simply no responsible way to continue running Kaspersky software.
It's not just Kaspersky. This is true for any Russian-based software or service you use. Ultimately, it's time to cut ties with potentially hostile companies.
It is not the Russian people; it's not even the Russian companies; it is singularly Putin's increasingly hostile government that makes breaking free from Russian cyberconnection essential.
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