Eugene Kaspersky

Eugene Kaspersky is a Russian cybersecurity expert that created the cybersecurity company Kaspersky. This company, owned and operated by Eugene, has been creating a lot of turmoil in the United States. Kaspersky has been suspected of using their software as means of hacking into private information, specifically in the United States and United States government. The NSA has identified Kaspersky and his company with serious suspicion of disorderly conduct and invasion of privacy. This issue has created great uproar as to how the United States allowed Kaspersky to abuse his company’s power and retrieve private information from the United States and send it to Russia. Eugene Kaspersky and his company’s actions could have been prevented in the United States. There is strong evidence that indicated these events would occur and many ways it could have been stopped.

The Russian cybersecurity group Kaspersky has been under attack in recent years for numerous of events with the most recent being suspected of leaking files to Russian government. It is not clear whether the files were intentionally leaked or if the cybersecurity group failed to detect a hacker, possibly Russian, that led to the leaked files. The first detection of a hacker present was discovered by Israeli hackers. They then notified the NSA about the breach. The NSA immediately started a hunt for the breach and the culprit behind the breach. The investigation proved that the tools of the breach were in possession of the Russian government.

One reason to look at why the potential leak happened is power and influence. Power refers to capacity that an individual or group has to influence the behavior of another so they act in accordance with their wishes. The powerful influence in this situation is suspected of being the Russian government. (Judge 412)

One indication that Kaspersky was being controlled by or influenced by the Russian government is how the US military could possibly be banned from using Kaspersky Lab's security products under a proposal being considered by the US Senate. With their main reason being, that Kaspersky software “might be vulnerable to Russian government influence".

The United States has had Kaspersky under a spotlight for the reason that their products may have been the cause of facilitating Russian espionage. Kaspersky uses a standard technique to detect computer viruses but can also identify information and other data not related to malware. This particular firm is the major anti-virus firm whose data is routed through Russian internet service providers. That leaves sensitive and possibly classified information vulnerable to Russia surveillance.

In this particular case, the NSA has narrowed their search to a NSA contractor that was possibly using Kaspersky software on his home computer. The nameless employee is under federal investigation but is believed that he/she was not working with a foreign adversary.

The founder of Kaspersky says that the contractor downloaded malware while pirating Microsoft Office before running virus scan on machine containing confidential software. It is said that the employee was using Kaspersky anti-virus software on his home computer. That led to the ability to contract a malware on a computer that possibly contained important information.

One of the biggest red flags in my research is the founder of Kaspersky. Eugene V. Kaspersky who grew up in Russia and attended the technical faculty school of the KGB. This school prepared intelligence officers for the KGB and Russian military. He graduated from the school with a mathematical engineering degree and extensive knowledge in computer technology. After graduation, he served in the Russian military as a software engineer and an intelligence officer. Being granted an early release from the Russian military he became even more interested in IT security. He bounced around between a few IT companies in Russia until he founded Kaspersky Labs in 1997. Therefore, the US military is using a Russian company founded and operated by an individual that received education from a KGB school and served in the Russian military. It does not seem like a very well thought out decision to use a company with so many Russian ties, especially when this company has access to confidential government and military information.

The Kaspersky anti-virus “hacking” accusations have a been a major story in headlines across the world regarding the use of hacking by a Russian man through his own anti-virus software. Kaspersky could have possibly done many things to prevent the accusations of him hacking into other countries intelligence servers (Perlroth et al). To prevent these accusations, one must look back at Kaspersky’s initial values.

Kaspersky, the founder of Kaspersky spyware, grew up in Russia. He attended a school where he was taught about cryptology and then went forward to work for intelligence for the Soviet Union. As Kaspersky grew up and grew into himself, all he had known were what he was being taught at these schools. These schools had taught him that spying was “ok” and that got embedded in his value system during that time. He claims that he does not remember what he did when working for the Soviet Union, because it was a long time ago. That seems like a tactic while using lying. He went to create a multi-million-dollar anti-software program that would then be used around the globe (Shachtman). It is hard to believe that the whole world would put trust in a man who had jobs spying on other countries in his past. His ethical beliefs have already been questioned as well.

Information about Kaspersky’s company has shown that years ago, they had possibly broken some ethical codes. People who had worked for Kaspersky in the past have come forward as “whistle-blowers” and have spoken about how Kaspersky has purposefully made other companies spy-ware get “messed up”. Whistle-blowers are people who reveal information about a company, when the company is doing something illegal or wrong. (Organizational Behavior, 170) They said that in the past Kaspersky made employees hack into other major anti-spyware companies such as Microsoft and AVG and they would disable certain important files on the users account. When people had Microsoft or AVG and their files were compromised, they would switch to another anti-virus software, another major one such as Kaspersky (Menn). This information came out about two years ago from whistle-blowers who were trying to reveal the truth and has progressed into Kaspersky being accused of being an anti-virus program that includes spying.

When this information came out people should have questioned Kaspersky’s ethics. They were not using utilitarianism, because if they were they would not have attacked another company to get ahead, for their own personal benefit