Items tagged with Kaspersky
The eighth and final season of HBO's popular Game of Thrones series is nearly upon us, which means that winter is finally coming. That also means an invasion of malware. Not from HBO, mind you, but through the sometimes sordid torrent community where illegal downloads flourish. As it were, Game of Thrones is the top TV show torrent used to cover up malware, according to data by Kaspersky. Kaspersky's full report includes plenty of interesting data. To start with, it found that the total number of users who encountered malware piggybacking on TV show torrents in 2018 was 126,340. That's actually a 33 percent decrease from 2017, though still a relatively large number. Game of Thrones topped The...
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Security firm Kaspersky Lab has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in Russia over recent restrictions placed on the company's Kaspersky Safe Kids app for iOS. According to Kaspersky, Apple only decided to place additional restrictions on the app after announcing its own Screen Time feature as part of iOS 12, essentially putting it in competition with third-party parental control software. In a blog post on the subject, Kaspersky Lab says Apple had no issue with its app for the past three years. Now, however, Apple has blocked the app because it does not meet the requirements of paragraph 2.5.1 of the guidelines for apps hosted in the App Store. "It turned out that, according to Apple,...
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Android malware that has the ability to spy on users and perform other nefarious tasks seem to be a dime a dozen these days. However, a new piece of Android malware is making the rounds, and it's loaded to the brim with sophisticated spying capabilities that have never been seen before. Dubbed Skygofree, the malware was first developed back in 2014 and has gone through a number of code rewrites since then. In its most current iteration, the number of features that are at its disposal are quite remarkable. Kaspersky labels Skygofree as "multi-stage spyware that gives attackers full remote control of the infected device." Skygofree is capable of recording audio via the microphone on a target device...
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A popular antivirus vendor is at odds with the United States government over ties with Russia, and things have turned ugly. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a government ban on any and all Kaspersky software, giving civilian government agencies 90 days to remove Kaspersky software completely from their networks. In response, Kaspersky has filed a lawsuit against DHS, claiming the ban was unjustified. DHS issued the ban over concerns of Russian interference, and fear that Kaspersky might be colluding with Russia to spy on US intelligence agencies. The ban and subsequent lawsuit follows an investigation by the FBI earlier this summer, which resulted in the agency advising companies...
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This has been a bad year for wide-scale ransomware attacks, where malware encrypt a user's computer and demands payment to unlock the machine. The two major ransomware attacks that have happened in 2017 include WannaCry and ExPetr (or Petya and NotPetya as they were also called). The hackers behind WannaCry cashed out their bitcoin ransom in August netting about $143,000. The year is almost over, but another major ransomware attack is underway and it is called Bad Rabbit. Kaspersky says that Bad Rabbit has infected several major Russian media outlets with Interfax and Fontanka.ru news agencies being among the first confirmed victims. Odessa International Airport has also reportedly stated...
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Kaspersky just lost a major customer. Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer in the United States, is yanking Kaspersky's security products off its brick-and-mortar and online store shelves. While Kaspersky has traditionally been one of the most well regarded developers of security software for PCs and mobile devices, more recently some have voiced concerns over the company's potential ties with the Russian government. It is not clear what exactly was the straw that broke the camel in this case. Best Buy may have been spooked by numerous media reports covering the topic, or it could have been a congressional investigation that swayed the electronics chain. Just last month, the Federal Bureau...
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Antivirus maker Kaspersky Lab may have kissed and made up with Microsoft over a dispute in how Windows 10 handles third-party AV software, but even so companies are reportedly being warned not to use the security software. The warning comes from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to CyberScoop, which says it spoke with both current and former senior US officials who are familiar with the matter. The perceived threat is a familiar one in the software industry—government spying. In this case, Kaspersky Lab is headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Apparently US intelligence officials have long suspected that Russian spy agencies have been gathering intelligence on a global...
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After putting legal pressure on Microsoft to provide antivirus vendors with additional time to test their software prior to new Windows 10 builds being rolled out, security outfit Kaspersky is getting its way. Microsoft announced in a blog post that it has agreed to certain changes in the way it handles third-party AV software, which will be implemented in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. "We work closely with AV partners like Kaspersky Lab, and at our Microsoft Virus Initiative forum last month, we made great progress in building upon our shared understanding of how we deliver Windows 10 updates and security experiences that help ensure the ongoing safety of Windows customers... As a result,...
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A well known computer security company is easing back on its threat to file a complaint on Microsoft over anti-competitive concerns, though it is not completely off the table. That company is Russia's Kaspersky Lab, and for the time being it is content with Microsoft's ongoing efforts to be more inclusive of third-party antivirus programs for Windows 10 that compete with the OS's built-in Defender software. Kaspersky's frustration boiled over into a lengthy blog post last year written by Kaspersky founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky. Titled "That's It. I've Had Enough!," the blog laid out Kaspersky's grievances with Windows 10 and its handling of third-party AV programs. "When you upgrade to Windows...
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Third-party antivirus developers aren't happy with the way Windows 10 seemingly goes to great lengths to kick AV programs to the curb in favor of Microsoft's own built-in Defender software, and that has led to an antitrust investigation in Russia. Among the various complaints, the Russian antitrust authority will see if Microsoft abused its position of dominance by rushing the OS to market. Russia's antitrust suit echos the complaints Eugene Kaspsersky shared in a lengthy blog post blasting Microsoft for how it treats Defender versus third-party AV programs. Kaspersky, who is the CEO of Kaspersky Lab in Russia, said his feelings on the matter are shared throughout the security industry but most...
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Cybersecurity expert Eugene Kaspersky just channeled his inner Howard Beale to let Microsoft know he's mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore. If that reference is too old, we can kick things up a decade to Twisted Sister, as all that's missing from his strongly worded and scathing blog post calling out Microsoft for unfairly favoring its own Defender antivirus software over third-party solutions is the 1980s band's hit song playing in the background. While Eugene himself doesn't bring this up, there are quite a few parallels between the song "We're Not Gonna Take It" and his message to Microsoft. Let's start with the very first verse following the opening chorus. We've got the right...
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Kaspersky Lab is defending itself against accusations that it tricked competing antivirus services into damaging their clients’ computers. The Russian anti-malware software developer is well-known for its security software, but faces stiff competition from the likes of Avast, AVG, McAfee, Microsoft and Symantec. Anonymous sources claiming to be former Kaspersky employees went public with criticism of the company recently, alleging that Kaspersky poisoned a data pool that security companies share in an attempt to undermine their credibility with customers. Not surprisingly, Kaspersky is a bit prickly about the whole thing. “Contrary to allegation made in a Reuters news story, Kaspersky Lab has...
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It's not a great day for Russia-based Kaspersky Lab, as some of its former employees have come forward (anonymously) with information that indicates that some dastardly deeds were conducted by the company. Ultimately, it's said that Kaspersky wanted to harm its competition because they wouldn't stop stealing its work. The allegation is that Kaspersky Lab had select employees purposely inject bad code into normal, common files, so that its competitors could pick them up as malicious, and in the worst case, delete them from a user's PC. That could result in broken software or perhaps even a broken operating system. The attack on competitors was made possible with Google's VirusTotal This was made...
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Leading antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab said that it recently suffered a security breach involving at least three techniques that it had never seen before. The AV company described the attack as "one of the most sophisticated campaigns ever seen," though it believes it was able to detect the intrusion at an early stage, thereby mitigating the damage."This highly sophisticated attack used up to three zero-day exploits, which is very impressive -- the costs must have been very high," Costin Raiu, director of Kaspersky's global research and analysis team, said in a statement.The sneaky malware used to spy on Kasperky's systems sits patiently in a computer's memory bank and never writes any...
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