Any combination of these 3 factors could be true simultaneously. But as with most rumours, ask, who benefits? If it's plausible that some Western companies mig

Any combination of these 3 factors could be true simultaneously. But as with most rumours, ask, who benefits? If it's plausible that some Western companies might cooperate with Western intelligence, then it's equally plausible that a Russian company may cooperate with its home country's intelligence. Regardless of whether it's true, the Western allies' intelligence community benefits from discouraging Kaspersky's use either way: either by driving usage to products they can influence, but their adversaries can't, or by avoiding exposure of first-party malware to an actor they can't influence.