Kaspersky sues US government over banning order

Kaspersky claims its constitutional rights have been violated by federal government ban

Russian security software firm Kaspersky Lab is to sue the US Department of Homeland Security following the imposition of a blanket ban on the company's products across the US federal government.

The company revealed in an open letter that it's filed suit against the US government.

The Moscow-based company believes that the US government has abused its position and taken away its rights by removing the software from government agencies, without providing any evidence of wrong-doing on Kaspersky's part that would justify such an action.

Over the past few months, Kaspersky has faced a number of accusations claiming that it works hand-in-glove with Russian security services and that it has used, or allowed its software to be used, to exfiltrate information from people's computers.

In September, the US government issued a directive ordering the removal of all Kaspersky software from federal government agencies within three months.

However, at the start of the month, Trump went further by writing the ban into the law books. Kaspersky has denied that it has any inappropriate links with the Russian government or its security agencies.

Kaspersky has been widely supported across the IT security industry, notwthstanding some vendors' willingness to use the imbroglio to sell their own products.

The lawsuit has been filed in the US District Court in Columbia, although the exact details of the court hearing and when the hearing will begin are unknown.

Kaspersky co-founder Eugene Kaspersky took to Twitter to announce the news. He said: "We're securing out rights by taking this to the courts".

After being blamed for conducting cyber espionage, the company wrote to the Department for Homeland Security as part of a "good faith effort" to address "concerns regarding the company, its operations or its products".

While the Department "confirmed receipt of Kaspersky Lab's letter in mid-August", it didn't accept the company's offer. Kaspersky didn't hear back from the Department until September when the directive was issued.

"Kaspersky Lab believed in good faith that DHS would take the company up on its offer to engage on these issues and hear from the company before taking any adverse action," said the firm.

"However, there was no subsequent communication from DHS to Kaspersky Lab until the notification regarding the issuance of Binding Operational Directive 17-01 on September 13, 2017. The July and August communications are referenced below."

In an open letter published on the company's website, Eugene Kaspersky slammed the decisions made by the DHS - calling them "unfair".

He continued: "Unfortunately, in the case of Binding Operational Directive 17-01, DHS did not provide Kaspersky Lab with a meaningful opportunity to be heard before the Directive's issuance, and therefore, Kaspersky Lab's due process rights were infringed," he said.