The Australian government has taken action against Kaspersky. All Kaspersky Lab products and services are now banned within the government. Australia is citing security risks to justify the measure.
After reviewing the tools developed by the Russian company, Stephanie Foster, Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, says she has determined that the use of Kaspersky products “by Australian government entities constitutes a security risk” unacceptable to the government, its networks and its data, due to threats of foreign interference, espionage and sabotage”.
With this measure, the government seeks to send “a strong political signal to critical infrastructure and other Australian government agencies that they face an unacceptable security threat”. Mirroring the United States, Australia must be concerned that Kaspersky is collaborating with Russian intelligence services. Authorities must believe that the group's products are likely to collect sensitive data on behalf of Russia. This is the theory that is regularly put forward by Washington.
Kaspersky tackles a political decision
From now on, all Australian government bodies are called upon to remove all Kaspersky Lab products and prevent their installation in the future. In a second step, they must notify the Department of Home Affairs when all products have been successfully uninstalled. The directive includes an exception. In cases where Kaspersky tools are essential for national security or regulatory missions, including compliance and law enforcement, their use will remain permitted.
When contacted by Bleeping Computer, Kaspersky strongly refuted the accusations made by Australia. The company based in Moscow believes that the ban is not supported by "specific evidence and that no due process has been organized or followed to provide a convincing justification." Kaspersky believes that this measure is purely political:
Australia follows in the footsteps of the United States
Australia's decision comes a few months after Kaspersky was ousted from the United States. The American government went even further than the Australian decision-makers by completely excluding the firm's products from its territory. Since last summer, Kaspersky has no longer been allowed to sell its software in the United States. As a result, the Russian group has closed its American division.
Several other countries have already shown a certain distrust of Kaspersky in the past. This is the case for Germany, Italy and Canada. Like Australia, Canada prohibits its government employees from using Kaspersky tools on their corporate devices.
Source: Australian Government
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