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Thursday, October 12, 2017

Russia Has Turned Kaspersky Software Into Tool for Spying

(Click on the image for Shane Harris and Gordon Lubold's report in the Wall Street Journal)
WASHINGTON—The Russian government used a popular antivirus software to secretly scan computers around the world for classified U.S. government documents and top-secret information, modifying the program to turn it into an espionage tool, according to current and former U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.
The software, made by the Moscow-based company Kaspersky Lab, routinely scans files of computers on which it is installed looking for viruses and other malicious software. But in an adjustment to its normal operations that the officials say could only have been made with the company’s knowledge, the program searched for terms as broad as “top secret,” which may be written on classified government documents, as well as the classified code names of U.S. government programs, these people said.
[You should consider this when you decide on an anti-virus program.]