Ngl kaspersky is the close to the last group I care to hear from about security
Right. After posting this I saw the blog post by jfrog, which seems to do a very good job : https://jfrog.com/blog/xz-backdoor-attack-cve-2024-3094-all-you-need-to-know/
Well, it doesn’t invalidate the analysis.
This was a sophisticated attack happening over 2 years, from knowing the current maintainer was emotionally vulnerable to the structure of using the build system to introduce the patched code to Linux distro repos.
I’m guessing Kaspersky will come to the same conclusions many others have; that this was a state actor or similiarly well heeled group.
First time I’ve seen somebody acknowledge that it’s not just nation states with such capabilities. There are some huge organized crime syndicates.
But from what I’ve seen cybersec is mostly about blaming Russia/China/DPRK
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Maybe Kaspersky is Russia backed and is filled with backdoors. Idk, and I don’t care because I don’t use their products. But I do know they have great security experts and when they publish analysis like thesez they are generally very complete and informative, like when they discovered the remote hack on iPhones thing: https://securelist.com/operation-triangulation-catching-wild-triangle/110916/
Indeed. Their knowledge and detailed articles are pure gold!
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Kaspersky is probably the best company to hear from regarding such high profile compromises. Their discovery and breakdown of the recent Apple chip backdoor revealed how the American spy machine infiltrated Apple.
Straight from the horse’s mouth!
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Source?
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Kaspersky has faced controversy over allegations that it has engaged with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)—ties which the company has actively denied. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security banned Kaspersky products from all government departments on September 13, 2017. In October 2017, subsequent reports alleged that hackers working for the Russian government stole confidential data from the home computer of an American National Security Agency contractor via Kaspersky antivirus software. Kaspersky denied the allegations, reporting that the software had detected Equation Group malware samples which it uploaded to its servers for analysis in its normal course of operation.[13] The company has since announced commitments to increased accountability, such as soliciting independent reviews and verification of its software’s source code, and announcing that it would migrate some of its core infrastructure for foreign customers from Russia to Switzerland. In November 2020, Kaspersky finished relocating the data of its customers from Russia to Switzerland.[14][15] The company has also opened multiple transparency centers in Switzerland, Brazil, Canada, Spain and Malaysia which allow state agencies, government experts and regulators to review its source code.[16][17]
They are based in Russia
That’s not a source. By that metric every American AV has an NSA backdoor. And, ok, both of these are probably true tbh. But Kaspersky publishes extremely good security research and analysis which is just technical and totally possible to verify independently, so there’s no reason to avoid those, even if you don’t want to use their software.
I don’t use any of that software because it is a proprietary black box
That’s a different topic, you’re moving the goalposts :P
I was curious whether some scandal about data being sent to russian govt had emerged after the war, but apparently things are as they used to be.
Mind you, AVs have a scary control over your system, and I totally respect not wanting to use one headquartered in Russia (and since the government security agencies have ties within those companies even in the “free world” (lmao) it’s safe to assume Russian govt has them inside Kaspersky too).
With that being said, kaspersky is actually a multinational corporation present in many areas of the world, I wonder how much influence Moscow actuallt has over them.
Honestly AVs are kind of snake oil. I wouldn’t use any of them.
I agree and I also support the “common sense is the best av” argument, but for less tech savy people and workplaces I do think it’s necessary to have a last hope safety net against malware
*their (x2)