Is it safe to use Kaspersky Internet Security?

cns00 · 12 Jun 2023

I have been using Kaspersky Internet Security on my laptop for many years.

The problem is that Kaspersky is Russian. People are attacking Kaspersky and they are saying that it's no longer safe because it has become a big security risk and some places are banning Kaspersky. Please see Is Kaspersky safe in 2023? Kaspersky security review | Avast and https://cybernews.com/best-antivirus...ivirus-review/ (scroll down to is Kaspersky safe to use).

I think it's all propaganda against Russia. Most countries support Ukraine and they say that Russia are the bad guys for invading Ukraine. Thus people are saying don't use Kaspersky and they are banning it for propaganda reasons. I know that the Russian government and the Kremlin can try to take advantage of Kaspersky but how will I as a Kaspersky user get affected because of that? All I care for is that Kaspersky protects me from malware.

Ghot · 12 Jun 2023

cns00 said:

I have been using Kaspersky Internet Security on my laptop for many years.

The problem is that Kaspersky is Russian. People are attacking Kaspersky and they are saying that it's no longer safe because it has become a big security risk and some places are banning Kaspersky. Please see Is Kaspersky safe in 2023? Kaspersky security review | Avast and https://cybernews.com/best-antivirus...ivirus-review/ (scroll down to is Kaspersky safe to use).

I think it's all propaganda against Russia. Most countries support Ukraine and they say that Russia are the bad guys for invading Ukraine. Thus people are saying don't use Kaspersky and they are banning it for propaganda reasons. I know that the Russian government and the Kremlin can try to take advantage of Kaspersky but how will I as a Kaspersky user get affected because of that? All I care for is that Kaspersky protects me from malware.

There's no way to know for sure, if Kaspersky is or will be used as a political weapon.
Because there's no way to know for sure... many countries are recommending you avoid using it.

We won't know for sure, until Kaspersky users start getting hacked.
It's up to you whether you continue to use it or not.

It may be propaganda, it may be a valid recommendation.

cns00 · 12 Jun 2023

Ghot said:

We won't know for sure, until Kaspersky users start getting hacked.

How can this happen? If Kaspersky becomes malware and it is forced to bundle malware and spyware then ok you have to stop using it.

Ghot · 12 Jun 2023

cns00 said:

How can this happen? If Kaspersky becomes malware and it is forced to bundle malware and spyware then ok you have to stop using it.

Correct. The problem with that is that you won't know for sure until you get hacked.
Some can risk that, some can't. It's up to you.

Bitdefender is the same quality as Kaspersky. So if you decide you can't deal with not knowing... you can always switch to Bitdefender.

cns00 · 12 Jun 2023

Ok. I want to ask why wasn't rarbg.to attacked? rarbg.to is a website which rips bluray movies. There are Russians in the Rarbg group. No one said that it's not safe to download movies from rarbg.to and there has been no propaganda against that website. Unfortunately, Rarbg had to shutdown because they can no longer afford to keep the website running.

Ghot · 12 Jun 2023

cns00 said:

Ok. I want to ask why wasn't rarbg.to attacked? rarbg.to is a website which rips bluray movies. There are Russians in the Rarbg group. No one said that it's not safe to download movies from rarbg.to and there has been no propaganda against that website. Unfortunately, Rarbg had to shutdown because they can no longer afford to keep the website running.

There's no way to know for sure if ANYone's software is hacked.
Anytime you cross a street you "might" get hit by a car. That doesn't mean it will definitely happen.
It does mean that you need to be aware of the possibility.

If there's nothing super valuable on your comp... don't worry about it.
If there is... you should probably at least think seriously about it.

And EVERYone warns that it's risky to download from torrent sites.

z3r010 · 12 Jun 2023

I wouldn't want it anywhere near any of my PCs.

Plenty of very good AV solutions are out there, so why take the risk?

Try3 · 12 Jun 2023

cns00 said:

how will I as a Kaspersky user get affected

Nobody knows.
Nobody might ever know.

Denis

cns00 · 12 Jun 2023

Kaspersky says this:-
"As a private company, Kaspersky does not have any ties to the Russian government and moreover Kaspersky is not subject to Russia's System of Operative Investigative Measures (SORM) or other similar laws, and is not obliged to provide information, since the company doesn't provide communication services. This has been confirmed by a third-party independent legal assessment of the Russian legislation related to data-processing. The results are freely available online and provide an unbiased and fair legal assessment. See https://media.kasperskydaily.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/92/2015/02/02060120/REPORT-OF-PROF-DR-KAJ-HOBER.pdf"

I don't know. It depends on what type of person you are. If you greatly care about politics and you support Ukraine then you would stop using Russian products. I don't care about politics and I just care that Kaspersky protects my laptop against malware. Kaspersky is a good antivirus and it has millions of users worldwide. If the Russian government ruins Kaspersky products and makes it unsafe and forces it to bundle malware and spyware with the program and people who are using Kaspersky are getting hacked then it's risky to use Kaspersky. However, I don't think that can happen. Kaspersky is a private company and the Russian government has no right to interfere with how Kaspersky products are made. If Kaspersky politically supports the war then it's their business and that doesn't concern me.

User2468 · 12 Jun 2023

Russia reportedly stole NSA secrets with help of Kaspersky—what we know now | Ars Technica

It doesn't matter what mainstream anti-virus software you use, they are all over bloated, useless against polymorphic malware, and intercept (MITM) your TLS web connection to "protect you." All the while they are harvesting your browsing habits and what's installed on your computer, etc.

For this reason I chose not to use an anti-virus software and instead run my browser's in Sandboxie classic and scan ALL downloads at VirusTotal BEFORE execution. Sometimes I'll scan images as they can be laced with malware. I sometimes use ClamWin to scan things, but that's not an active anti-virus. It's a scanner only and is very slow. Only good for files and folders or small directories.

Besides, damn good malware won't ever be detected... it could be in your UEFI, the Windows binary platform table, hardware firmware, or in the form of a virtualized rootkit. Chose your poison.

Addendum:

Both Ukraine and Russia are two different colored turds in the toilet... It's like comparing Mogadishu and Yemen as far as this observer is concerned. Not to down play the harming of innocent lives though, it's just that both governments are piles of crap.