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Kaspersky Labs offers free antivirus amidst Russian influence concerns


LAS VEGAS — Russia-based Kaspersky Labs released a free version of its antivirus software program Wednesday, just as Congress was working on an amendment to the defense policy bill that will ban the use of the company's software on Department of Defense networks because of concerns over possible company ties to the Russian government.
Kaspersky is one of the world's largest cyber firms, with as many as 400 million users worldwide. The program will be rolled out globally over the next four months.

Offering a stripped-down version of commercial software for free makes economic sense because the data Kaspersky can gather will positively affect the protection it can offer all users by better honing its machine learning capabilities, he wrote.
Concerns that Kaspersky Labs might have connections to Russian intelligence or military have dogged the company since its founding in 1997 and, according to analysis firms such as Gartner, have hampered its acceptance in the United States.
That again boiled to the surface earlier this month when FBI agents interviewed U.S.-based Kaspersky staff in the United States, Reuters reported.
On July 14, the General Services Administration removed Kaspersky Labs from its list of approved vendors, citing concerns that it might represent a threat to the integrity and security of U.S. government systems and networks.
The Senate Armed Services Committee in a markup added language that would prohibit the Department of Defense from using Kaspersky software because "the Moscow-based company might be vulnerable to Russian government influence."
Russian officials have suggested they might retaliate if the company is banned from selling.
Company founder Eugene Kaspersky has strenuously denied all ties to the Russian government and to back up his statements offered up the compan’s source code for inspection to prove it.
“Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government, and the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage efforts,” the company said in a statement to USA TODAY.
The company “seems to be caught in the middle of a geopolitical fight where each side is attempting to use the company as a pawn in their political game,” the statement said.
Offering free security software is common in the industry. Popular programs include Avast, AVG, Bitdefender and Sophos.
There's nothing inherently dangerous about Kaspersky antivirus software beyond the concerns inherent in any free security software, said Tim Erlin, vice president for strategy at Tripwire, a Portland, Ore.-based security company.  
"If you're comfortable giving out your data to any other computer security company, I don't know why you would be any more or less comfortable with Kaspersky. They do  what all the companies offering free software do," he said.

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