Kaspersky Lab products banned in the US

[3DStudent]

I just renewed my Kaspersky subscription a few weeks ago and went on their forum and noticed it was banned in the US, back in April! I don't care about the money or a reimbursement, but I just thought they had a good product. Starting July 20th US residents cannot purchase a new license and by September 30th you cannot update the product. Some are saying just use a VPN. Hard to say how it will go. Even in the remote chance Trump gets back in, I doubt he would care to remove the ban.

I know some others here use it. Do you think using their VPN is still viable? I've used other software in the past, I'd just not rather have to switch. I suppose this was always likely and maybe we're lucky it lasted as long as it did. Here's their thread on it:

US Government Ban on private use of Kaspersky anti-virus

My subscriptions just renewed and I later read that Joe Biden is planning to ban the use of Kaspersky anti-virus products by the end of April. Where did this idea get hatched and why haven't subscribers been notified? How is this government ban going to work? Will black SUVs suddenly show up at m...

forum.kaspersky.com

 

[hlat]

Do you think using their VPN is still viable?

I'm using it right now. I'll use it until it stops working.

 

[BlueKiwi]

The last I read up on antivirus software, Microsoft has suggested not to use it, and let windows' in built security (Windows defender) do the job. Running Malwarebytes with this is enough by the looks of the information out now.

The problem with 3rd party antivirus software is that typically runs at at ring 0 privilege level, and they make use of undocumented kernel api's functions, which Microsoft don't want other software using.

I guess Microsoft know their kernel better than anyone else, so they would have the best idea how to use it, especially for AV

If a security flaw in the AV software is discovered by a hacker, and they are able to exploit it, then it's all over, since at ring 0 privilege, any other AV software would not be able to detect or stop it.

This also goes for AV software having backdoors written in (Which is what the US government think Kaspersky have done) which means they own you and your data as soon as you've installed it.

This of course means Microsoft probably own you and your data as well, but that's ok with the US government, since Microsoft aren't the Russians.

To be honest, if anyone asks me, I always suggest to use Ubuntu or Linux mint if they can. Then you don't have to bother with AV

 

[aimarok]

To be honest, if anyone asks me, I always suggest to use Ubuntu or Linux mint if they can. Then you don't have to bother with AV

It's a good advice. Linux distributions are not perfect, stuff gets occasionally broken, some specific hardware like printers might be a pain to use due to closed drivers, new security holes are discovered and so on. But it's all relevant to Windows as well. With Linux you can forget about built-in spyware and anti-virus software.