How safe is Kaspersky Internet security?
Hi everyone.
Leo Notenboom here for askleo.com. Here's a question that I got, to be honest
several years ago, that has increased relevance today.
"Hello, Leo. I've been using Kasperski Internet
security for many years now without problems or viruses.
What I'm concerned about is all
the negative news I've been reading and hearing about Kaspersky.
I've read that he is a spy for the Russian government and that he's been hacking our
systems at the request of the Russian government.
What should I do?
Should I uninstall Kaspersky that has been
protecting my computers for years now, or just ignore the negative views?
Can you give me the truth of what's going on with Kaspersky?"
My answer originally was I don't know what's going on with Kaspersky.
My updated answer is I still don't know what's going on with Kaspersky.
But unfortunately, current events in this year 2022
basically have caused me to change my recommendation about what you should do.
And it's unfortunate because ultimately, Kaspersky is apparently a good product.
Now, I want to be clear.
Like I said, this is nothing new because Kaspersky has always come under
fire from various audiences because they are headquartered in Moscow, Russia.
The same is true for many different software vendors.
Another good example is that EaseUS Todo,
one of the backup solutions that I recommend is headquartered in China,
where many people do have concerns about the Chinese government exercising
that same kind of, I don't know, malicious intent, forcing EaseUS to do something.
The issue here is honestly not that Kaspersky is doing anything.
Every time there's been a claim
that someone has made about Kaspersky, it's never been proven.
There is actually no data, zero data, to show that they've ever been anything
but aboveboard about what they do, how they do it, and how they don't spy
on us or feed data back to the Russian government.
They do try to minimize their Russian ties.
If you go to their United States website,
you actually won't find anything about them being headquartered in Moscow.
They're a US company with a headquarter in London, apparently.
But in reality, if you look back further, I have to currently go back
to the Internet Archive to look at older versions of their pages.
But if you go back further,
you'll see that yes, indeed, Kaspersky Internet software is
headquartered in Moscow, because that's where Mr.
Kasperski is from.
But again, there's never been any data
that shows they've ever done anything actually wrong.
Are they hiding their ties to Russia?
Well, to be honest, you could go either way, right?
Given that implication that so many people
are making it might make sense for them to downplay the relationship.
On the other hand, it could be nefarious.
They could be downplaying their
relationship just because they have reasons to again, I don't know.
So the issue now in 2022, of course, is that Russia has invaded Ukraine.
There are a number of issues dealing with any Corporation that's based
in Russia, be it the sanctions, be it just not wanting to do business
there, be it any number of different reasons.
Many people and many,
many companies are electing to remove all support from Russian based organizations.
Here's the thing.
Like I said, with respect to Kaspersky,
there is no data that says they've ever done anything wrong.
But because they are based in Russia,
because Kaspersky is apparently a Russian National, it is possible
that they could be forced to do something, the kind of something that we've been
afraid of for all this time at the hands of the Russian government.
They could force the issue, they could force Kaspersky to put
in spyware, they could force it to do something that we don't want them to do.
In the past, that has seemed incredibly unlikely, but given current world events,
it seems a little bit more plausible than it might have been in the past.
As a result, if I were in your shoes and if I were
running Kaspersky software, this is what I would do.
I would uninstall it.
I would in the case of security software, let Microsoft Security, Windows Defender,
whatever it's called this week, let that take over the job.
It is my recommendation for most people anyway.
You don't need to install a third party anti malware or security suite.
The stuff that's built into Windows Ten
and Windows Eleven is plenty for most people.
If uninstalling Kaspersky or uninstalling, any third party should cause
Microsoft Security to basically step in and take over for you.
Now, if you want a third party, fine.
There's plenty of other third parties.
My article, what security software do you recommend?
While it does recommend Microsoft Security
and Windows Defender also lists a few other packages that over the years have
had a good reputation and are things that you might want to consider again if
you want an additional or an alternate third party security solution.
It's unfortunate.
I honestly think this is unfortunate.
I do think that Kasperski is probably fine.
There's probably nothing going on and that there hasn't been anything going on.
But at this point, given the political turmoil,
given the situation here in 2022, it's a risk we just don't need to take.
There's no reason to run Kaspersky specifically.
There are plenty of alternatives, plenty of free alternatives.
So at this point, I guess I'd say Yep, it's time to back away.
For updates, for comments,
for related links and more, visit AskLeo.com/28269. I'm Leo Notenboom
and this is Ask Leo.com. Thanks for watching.