President Trump recently signed a defense policy spending bill which included a formal ban on Kaspersky’s anti-virus software. The complete federal ban followed a warning to U.S. federal agencies earlier this year to not use Kaspersky software on their computers. Kaspersky did say that it was considering all options to fight the ban and the company has now sued the U.S. government over the federal ban imposed on its software.
A directive was issued to U.S. civilian agencies in September this year by the Department of Homeland Security ordering them to remove Kaspersky Lab from their computer networks within 90 days. The subsequent federal ban now prohibits the use of this software by both civilian and military agencies.
The U.S. government banned Kaspersky’s software for potential links with Russia, that’s something that Kaspersky has repeatedly denied. It even offered to share its source code with the government to address concerns that its software eavesdrops on U.S. machines.
Kaspersky sued the government in federal court today, arguing that it has been deprived of its due process rights. The company’s founder Eugene Kaspersky has said in an open letter that the company’s reputation and its commercial operations have been harmed by this ban “without any evidence of wrongdoing by the company.”