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I'm rather surprised the United States government would be using foreign software for information security. Really, I'm surprised that they're using outside so
by juliangoldsmith 8y ago
I'm rather surprised the United States government would be using foreign software for information security. Really, I'm surprised that they're using outside software for it at all. As much as I'm a fan of the free market, that isn't the sort of thing I'd trust to an outside company.
If only there was some sort of group in the government that handled information security... Some sort of security agency, if you will.
- cptskippy 8y agoI'm not sure which is worse, Kaspersky/Russia spying on everyone in the Fed or the NSA.
- CWuestefeld 8y agoThis makes sense for the US Government. But at the same time, it makes more sense for me - as a US citizen - to use Kaspersky. The Russian gov't doesn't care about me at all, so I have little to fear from them. But I do fear the NSA because I am subject to the whims of the US government.
- cptskippy 8y agoWhat if your PC gets enlisted in a state sponsored attack against the US? Or is used as a proxy for an intrusion? Or... so many other possible scenarios...
- Ngunyan 8y ago(And if you have an American-branded anti-virus) What if your PC gets enlisted in a state sponsored attack by the US? Or is used as a proxy for an intrusion? Or... so many other possible scenarios...
- csydas 8y agoIt's not that surprising. Typically when you work with Governments, everything is specially done, doubly so for the US Government. Custom Federal forks of the main product (with feature parity), heavily customized SLAs, full access to the source code for review, and lots more to ensure that it meets the US Federal standards. The Anti-Kaspersky stuff is likely just chest beating. I get it at the base level, and that AV software in general grants a much deeper reach that most softwares, but most likely they're not installing the same Kaspersky that anyone else is. My current employer is a rather large non-US tech company, and we have custom branches for every product specifically made for the US Federal Government. It's all rebuilt from the ground up on US soil by US Nationals and the US Government has freedom to review the code. It's the price you pay to play with the US Government. I would find it very hard to believe that Kaspersky doesn't have something similar.
- tssva 8y agoFor the vast majority of COTS software the US Government uses the same software versions as everyone else. This holds true for anti-virus software.