Trump signs law banning use of Kaspersky products within US government

Trump signs law banning Kaspersky products from US government agencies

US president Donald Trump has signed a law banning the use of Kaspersky Lab products within US government organisations.

For months, government officials have been clearing the Moscow-based cyber security company's products from the networks of US federal agencies, a task that is now more-or-less completed.

Kaspersky has been accused of allowing its anti-virus software to be used by Russian intelligence to exfiltrate information from the PCs of US government officials, although little evidence has been presented to back-up such claims.

The ban is included in a new defence policy spending bill, which was signed by Trump on Tuesday. it follows a directive in September that gave agencies 90 days to remove Kaspersky software from their networks and systems.

Jeanne Shaheen, the Democratic senator who had been upping pressure on the government to ban the software, praised Trump's decision to sign the directive.

"The case against Kaspersky is well-documented and deeply concerning. This law is long overdue," she claimed. She described the company's software as a "grave risk" to America's national security.

Following Trump's decision, Department of Homeland Security cyber official Christopher Krebs said many of the government's agencies had already removed the software.

Kaspersky Lab has denied the allegations, and to distance itself from them it has begun submitting the source code of its products for inspection to third-party organisations - yet nevertheless recently closed its Washington DC sales office.

On Tuesday, the company said it had "serious concerns" over the law "due to its geographic-specific approach to cybersecurity".

Speaking in October, co-founder Eugene Kaspersky said: "Internet balkanisation benefits no one except cybercriminals. Reduced cooperation among countries helps the bad guys in their operations, and public-private partnerships don't work like they should.

"We need to re-establish trust in relationships between companies, governments and citizens. That's why we're launching this Global Transparency Initiative: we want to show how we're completely open and transparent.

He added that the company is ethical in its practices. "We've nothing to hide. And I believe that with these actions we'll be able to overcome mistrust and support our commitment to protecting people in any country on our planet."