Amid a flurry of accusations against Kaspersky labs, new information has leaked that hacking tools stolen from the NSA were allegedly found on Kaspersky labs networks by Israeli intelligence services who hacked Kaspersky in 2015. The Israelis then shared the findings of their Kaspersky labs hack with U.S. intelligence officials.
After several months of allegations and concerns about security firm Kaspersky Lab and its involvement in Russian government hacking efforts, there is a rather dramatic new revelation in the ongoing drama about the accusation of collaboration with Russian intelligence.
According to two reports published on Oct. 10 in the New York Times and Washington Post, Israeli intelligence operatives actually hacked Kaspersky Lab possibly as far back as 2015.
The Israeli intelligence operations was apparently able to gain access to Kaspersky Lab systems, where it found files as well as hacking tools on the network that appeared to be stolen from the NSA. Israeli officials then reportedly informed their U.S intelligence counterparts of their findings.
washingtonpost.com article:
In 2015, Israeli government hackers saw something suspicious in the computers of a Moscow-based cybersecurity firm: hacking tools that could only have come from the National Security Agency.Israel notified the NSA, where alarmed officials immediately began a hunt for the breach, according to people familiar with the matter, who said an investigation by the agency revealed that the tools were in the possession of the Russian government.
The new reports on Israeli involvement, comes about a week after an Oct. 5 report in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Russian hackers were able to steal secrets from the National Security Agency, by way of Kaspersky Lab software.
For its part, Kaspersky Lab is still trying to figure out if the reports are entirely accurate and what actually happened within their own labs:
Kaspersky Founder Eugene Kasperky tweeted:
I am launching internal investigation to cross-check. If US LEA has relevant facts – please share.
— Eugene Kaspersky (@e_kaspersky) October 10, 2017
Meanwhile, the US Government has ordered all federal agencies to remove Kaspersky software from their machines with all haste.
Our take:
As a security vendor, we evaluate software on it efficacy of doing it’s job – that is, to protect users from malware. Kaspersky labs software has always performed at the highest levels of protection, but it has been our opinion that the software from Kaspersky is quite “heavy” in terms of resources used. In the light of these allegation, we have spoken with our contacts in Kaspersky, and within other vendors.
Of course the other vendors are delighted that one of their competitors has a cloud of suspicion over them, and our contacts within Kaspersky are dismayed to be under this cloud.
As an independent consultant, we’re working with customers large and small to provide alternatives to Kaspersky for those who feel the need to move protection vendors, and we have some options to migrate from Kaspersky if you feel this is the best course of option for your business or department. These options include some discounts which we can leverage for former Kaspersky customers.