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Comment by mda | Hacker News Reader

Closed source OS from an anti virus company with a dodgy history? I will pass.

Could you expand on the "dodgy history"? I always thought that Kaspersky was one of the "good guys"

There are several controversies, you can Google it, but that is not really important. Only "anti virus company" clause would be enough for me to not touch it with a ten foot pole.

Kaspersky had a history of working with Russian security agencies, has a lot of buddies there and a lot of people have throughout their careers moved from Kaspersky to these agencies and vice versa. If Russia will need somerhing from Kaspersky, government won't even need a warrant - he'll be happy to help.

The same can be said of most if not all US companies. They either co-operate willingly or are served 'secret letters' by 'secret courts' in 'secret processes'.

Not only is this co-operation extensive, documented and widely known there has been zero action, prosecutions or accountability from Snowden's leaks so far.

Kaspersky is an antivirus vendor with insignificant users and influence. Why care about Kapsersky when wide scale surveillance and 'co-operation' with the NSA of most US companies carries on uninterrupted inspite of the Snowden leaks.

That seems far more 'dodgy' than anything Kaspersky and Russia could be up to.

Are there any news articles to substantiate the claim that Kaspersky readily gives information to the Russian government?

Don't have links at hand because for me personally it's firsthand knowlesge from friends and classmates working there. It's not a big secret though.

Went to a KGB sponsored Uni and worked for the GRU :-)

Someone deep downthread had these links. I haven't vetted them so much as bringing them higher in thread to put more substance in discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12986906

Well, it makes sense to anyone who fully trusts the Russian government. :-)

Dodgy history?

The same here!

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