Israeli hackers who managed to break Kaspersky-owned systems discovered hacking tools stolen by the NSA, according to press reports New York Times and The Washington Post.
Israeli officials soon after warned them services intelligence in the United States about a potential breach of their network, indicating possible collaboration between Kaspersky and the Russian government.US NSA officials have in turn informed all NATO allies that Kaspersky's database and source code may be known to secret services in Russia, allowing Russian hackers to attack Nato and more generally in Europe.
However, Kaspersky continues to state that it is not cooperating with Russia or any other government, adding that it does not know that any violations of Israeli hackers have occurred.
"Kaspersky Lab has never helped, nor will it help, any government in the world in its cyberespionage efforts," the Russian company said.
"As a private company, Kaspersky Lab has inappropriate ties to any government, including Russia, and the only conclusion seems to be that Kaspersky Lab is in the middle of a geopolitical dispute."
The US government has banned Kaspersky software on computers used in its services, and according to people close to the issue, the FBI has informed public and private companies about the security risks created by the software developed by the Russian company.
Some retail outlets, including Best Buy, have already stopped selling Kaspersky's software.
According to the New York Times and The Washington Post, the investigation launched by the US government revealed that Russian hackers were able to steal classified documents from the NSA using Kaspersky software, as well as files stored on the home computers of at least one employee. Kaspersky security products also worked on this home system.
After the publication of this article, none of the eblueparties (NSA, White House, and Israeli Embassy), did not comment on the publications.
It should be noted that since so many secret services are involved in this story, it is very difficult to say for sure which side is right, or is still playing a game until the final fall of the opponent.
Security, however, in short does not exist on the internet. The story comes to remind us what is being played under the table, even with companies we believe trustworthy.
Who guarantees that Google, Microsoft, Apple, and many others don't work with secret services?
But now is the time for Kaspersky….