Kaspersky Flagged as a Threat by the Pentagon More Than a Decade Ago

The US Government had doubts about Kaspersky in 2004.

About two months ago, we informed you that the US Government had banned the use of Kaspersky Labs Software. Moreover, recent news suggests that the Moscow-based company appeared on the Pentagon’s radar as early as 2004. The information comes from the Defense Department to the Congress, by the way. The first agency to point out Kaspersky as a potential threat was the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). As for the recent ban, it aims to stop Russian parties from spying on US intelligence targets through the company’s products.

The Pentagon issued a threat assessment on Kaspersky.

Apparently, this assessment dates back to 2012, but we don’t know exactly when the Department actually stopped using the software. What we do know is that many other agencies ignored the warnings. The Wall Street Journal even issued a report on the matter:

“A Russian cybersecurity firm whose products current and former U.S. officials suspect Moscow has used as a tool for spying was flagged by U.S. military intelligence as a potential security threat as early as 2004, according to new information the Defense Department provided to Congress. A top Pentagon cybersecurity official, Essye Miller told the committee at a hearing this week that the Defense Department hadn’t used Kaspersky products because of intelligence information regarding the firm. Still, other federal agencies didn’t follow the same precautions and used Kaspersky products.”

Department of Homeland Security official, Jeanette Manfra, reported that almost 15% of federal agencies had Kaspersky installed on their systems. Now, it looks like all agencies will have to remove the software by December 12. The company has denied all of these accusations, but the US government has decided that the risk is too high.