U.S. Judge Rejects Kaspersky Suit Against Govt Ban on its Products

[LASER_oneXM]

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https://www.securityweek.com/us-judge-rejects-kaspersky-suit-against-govt-ban-its-products

Washington - A Washington judge on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit by Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab against the ban on use of its anti-virus software by government agencies.

Kaspersky had complained that the ban -- announced after officials said Russian intelligence was able to hack the software for espionage purposes -- was in effect a "punishment" of the company without it having given it any kind of hearing.

Federal court judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected the argument, saying the US government had the right to institute the ban to defend its computer security.
The ban "does not inflict 'punishment' on Kaspersky Lab," Kollar-Kotelly said in her ruling.

"It eliminates a perceived risk to the nation's cybersecurity and, in so doing, has the secondary effect of foreclosing one small source of revenue for a large multinational corporation," she said.

She also rejected the global cybersecurity giant's complaint that it had been illegally denied the "right" to sell a product that is legal, and that the ban harmed its reputation.
While the company can still market its products, she said, the government has no obligation to buy them.
In addition, she said, as the ban is legal and will remain in place, nothing can be done about any harm to its reputation.

The ban began with a directive in September 2017 from the Department of Homeland Security for government agencies to remove Kaspersky software from their computing systems.
That has since been followed by a provision set by Congress in a budget bill prohibiting agencies from using Kaspersky software.

 

[TairikuOkami]

Federal court judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected the argument, saying the US government had the right to institute the ban to defend its computer security.
The ban "does not inflict 'punishment' on Kaspersky Lab," Kollar-Kotelly said in her ruling.

Obviously, whatever the reason, they have the right to choose, whatever they want. Some states or employees might still want to use it, but when the boss says no, it means no. I for one would expect the government to use home made products in the first place, lead by example.

The again, it is their loss, since, with a little exaggeration, KAV is the best AV in the world, thus the reason, it was banned in the first place.