Kaspersky Labs is making some changes after the company was accused of being part of a hack that targeted U.S. government data.
I told you that the Department of Homeland Security told all federal agencies to stop using the security software after the software was used to hack confidential U.S. government data from the home computer of a government employee.
The U.S. thinks the hackers were working for the Russian government and Kaspersky Labs is based in Moscow. It’s not clear whether someone just managed to hack Kaspersky, if they voluntarily assisted their government (the company denies it), or if the Russian government used Russian law to force the company to take part.
In response to this, Kaspersky has announced what they call a “transparency initiative.” The company will have an independent organization that they call “an internationally recognized authority” review their source code to make sure there aren’t any flaws that allow access to hackers and also have an independent review of the companies internal processes. They also plan to open up “Transparency Centers” in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. to allows government officials and concerned organizations to review their programs.
They’ve also upped the reward for finding a flaw in Kaspersky software to up to $100,000. To be clear, the company isn’t admitting any wrongdoing.
Kaspersky software is normally at the top when it comes to ranking the effectiveness of security software.