Russian Software Company Sanctioned as US Warns of Espionage Threat

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday sanctioned a Russian software company that sells antivirus and cybersecurity software in the United States, some of it to government agencies.

The Treasury Department said it found links between Kaspersky Lab and the Russian military indicating the software could be used to infiltrate and compromise U.S. computer networks.

The sanction means Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab is prohibited from selling or distributing updates to its software to American users.

The sanctions are part of a larger effort by U.S. investigative agencies to identify risks from the Russians as the United States continues its support for Ukraine and approaches a presidential election that could deeply impact its war.

On Monday, the Russian government blamed the United States for an attack on Crimea a day earlier with U.S.-supplied missiles. It killed at least four people and injured 151, leading the Russians to warn the U.S. ambassador that retaliation against the United States would follow.

Former President Donald Trump has said he would cut off military aid to Ukraine if he is reelected. President Joe Biden wants to continue supporting Ukraine’s war effort.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also said in a statement it was individually sanctioning 12 Kaspersky Lab executives for their “cooperation with Russian military and intelligence authorities in support of the Russian government’s cyber intelligence objectives.”

“These activities are contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests,” the Treasury Department said.

The Treasury Department based the sanctions on authority granted by Biden’s April 2021 Executive Order 14024. It allows the U.S. government to block transactions with persons or entities that operate in sectors of the Russian Federation economy that could create a security threat for the United States.

The executives sanctioned include Andrei Gennadyevich Tikhonov, the Kaspersky Lab chief operating officer.

The individual sanctions mean the Kaspersky Lab executives are blocked from access to their financial property in the United States or under control of Americans and that it must be reported to the government.

Kaspersky Lab offers customers three antivirus plans of different prices. Its website says, “Each Kaspersky plan uses cutting-edge AI technology to detect and stop any type of online threat — even ones that haven’t been seen before.”

The company responded to the sanctions with a statement saying, “We regard the move as unjustified and baseless, being a continuation of recent U.S. government decisions based on the present geopolitical climate and theoretical concerns, rather than on a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of the company’s products and operations.”

The Treasury Department sanctions are not the first time Kaspersky Lab faced espionage allegations.

In 2017, the U.S. government reported that hackers working for the Russian government stole confidential data from the home computer of a U.S. National Security Agency contractor by finding an entry through Kaspersky Lab antivirus software.

Kaspersky Lab claimed to have resolved the problems by relocating core infrastructure and customer data from Russia to Switzerland. Nevertheless, multiple countries have banned Kaspersky Lab products from being used by their federal agencies, including Lithuania and the Netherlands.

The Kaspersky Lab statement on Friday said, “Neither Kaspersky nor its management team has any ties to any government, and we consider the allegations quoted by the [Office of Foreign Asset Control] as pure speculation, which lacks concrete evidence of a threat posed to the U.S. national security.”

The military news site Defence Blog reported in April that Kaspersky Lab has allegedly helped the Russian government develop software for its spy drones.

A U.S.-based political consultant who works with Ukrainian government officials told The Well News Monday that the U.S. sanctions against Russian software companies like Kaspersky Lab could “lead to these companies being taken over by oligarchs…”

“This centralization under oligarch control often results in brain drain and a lack of new initiatives, further degrading the sector,” said Kateryna Odarchenko, a strategist for SIC Group USA. “Moreover, it gives Putin greater influence over these companies.”

The latest successful international cyberattack against U.S. interests shut down software last week for about 15,000 automobile dealerships across the United States and Canada.

A preliminary investigation has linked the cyberattack to the BlackSuit ransomware gang, which is made up of Russian and Eastern European hackers.

It locked up software produced by suburban Chicago-based CDK Global and used extensively in the automobile sales industry. CDK Global officials say they are negotiating to pay the millions of dollars in ransomware demanded by the hackers.

You can reach us at [email protected] and follow us on Facebook and Twitter