Kaspersky's connections with the Russian government are discussed all the time in the industry.
There would seem to be significant benefits to maintaining a white hat presence while gaining access to thousands of machines and maintaining a body knowledge about the latest threats/techniques.
Do you have any thoughts on the validity of the speculation?
No idea if Kapersky is a black hat in white haberdashery, but the behavior you describe is 100% Kremlin modus operandi. That's how they do propaganda too -- a bunch of real news with some fake news mixed in. It's a good idea for any propaganda outfit.
People have been assuming this for years.
Not sure if this is sarcasm, but its not adding much to the discussion IMHO.
It wasn't, but I am apparently naive.
Contrary to what the west media wants you to think, not every russian in the world is working for putin to fulfil his evil masterplan
In an age where an overwhelmingly large chunk of valuable data is stored digitally, though, speculation about connections between the Kremlin and Kaspersky isn't unfounded, given Kaspersky's line of work; especially given that the Russian government's been known to act in bad faith in the past.
Do you wonder why nobody assumes that Symantec, McAfee, and half of the other AV companies are working at the direction of Obama?