Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity and antivirus software company, announced it will start shutting down all of its operations in the U.S. on July 20. The departure was inevitable after 12 of the company’s executives were hit with sanctions, and the company’s products were banned from sale in the U.S.
Kaspersky Lab told BleepingComputer of the pending closure and confirmed it would lay off all of its U.S.-based employees. Reportedly, the shutdown affects less than 50 employees in the U.S. The impact on cybersecurity could be much greater since the company’s researchers have been responsible for stopping or slowing countless major security exploits.
The United States government has claimed that Kaspersky’s continued operations in the U.S. posed a significant privacy risk. Since Kaspersky is based in Russia, officials worry the Russian government could exploit the cybersecurity firm to collect and weaponize sensitive U.S. information.
In June, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) issued sanctions on Kaspersky. A Final Determination hearing resulted in Kaspersky being banned from providing any antivirus or cybersecurity solutions to anyone in the United States. Kaspersky’s customers in the U.S. have until September 29, 2024, to find alternative security and antivirus software.
Kaspersky told BleepingComputer that it had “carefully examined and evaluated the impact of the U.S. legal requirements and made this sad and difficult decision as business opportunities in the country are no longer viable.” After all, it’s hard to run a business that provides cybersecurity and antivirus solutions when you’re banned from doing so.
The BIS placed Kaspersky Lab and its U.K. holding company on the U.S. government’s Entity List because of their ties to Russia. This prevented Kaspersky from conducting business in the U.S. At the same time, a dozen members of Kaspersky’s board of executives and leadership were individually sanctioned.
These sanctions froze the executives’ U.S. assets and prevented access to them until the sanctions were lifted. While Kaspersky insisted the ban was based on theoretical concerns rather than evidence of wrongdoing, sources close to the matter have said otherwise. Russian backdoors into Kaspersky’s software are an “open secret,” they said, and a Commerce Department official stated the department believes it is more than just a theoretical threat.
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