- #HOW TO TURN OFF ANTIVIRUS FOR CERTAIN PROGRAMS SOFTWARE#
- #HOW TO TURN OFF ANTIVIRUS FOR CERTAIN PROGRAMS CODE#
Wardle’s research did not reflect how the company’s software works. Wardle found, “antivirus could be the ultimate cyberespionage spying tool.”
#HOW TO TURN OFF ANTIVIRUS FOR CERTAIN PROGRAMS CODE#
Unlike traditional antivirus software, which uses digital “signatures” to look for malicious code and patterns of activity, Kaspersky’s signatures are easily updated, can be automatically pushed out to certain clients, and contain code that can be tweaked to do things like automatically scanning for and siphoning off classified documents. Wardle found that Kaspersky’s antivirus software is incredibly complex. ( Watch how he reverse-engineered the software.) Wardle discovered, in reverse-engineering Kaspersky antivirus software, that a simple review of its source code would do nothing to prove its products had not been used as a Russian intelligence-gathering tool. Eugene Kaspersky, the company’s chief executive, has said he would allow the United States government to inspect his company’s source code to allay distrust of its antivirus and cybersecurity products.īut Mr. Kaspersky continues to deny that it knew about the scanning for classified United States programs or allowed its antivirus products to be used by Russian intelligence. The company also said in November that in the course of investigating a surveillance operation known as TeamSpy in 2015, it had tweaked its antivirus program to scan files containing the word “secret.” The company said it had done this because the TeamSpy attackers were known to automatically scan for files that included the words “secret,” “pass” and “saidumlo,” the Georgian translation for the word secret. They looked on for months as Russian government hackers scanned computers belonging to Kaspersky customers around the world for top secret American government classified programs. Last September, the Department of Homeland Security ordered all federal agencies to cease using Kaspersky products because of the threat that Kaspersky’s products could “provide access to files.”Ī month later, The New York Times reported that the Homeland Security directive was based, in large part, on intelligence shared by Israeli intelligence officials who successfully hacked Kaspersky Lab in 2014. headquarters at Fort Meade, Kaspersky still managed to secure contracts with nearly two dozen American government agencies over the last few years. Future targets included nearly two dozen other foreign antivirus makers, including Checkpoint in Israel and Avast in the Czech Republic.Īt the N.S.A., analysts were barred from using Kaspersky antivirus software because of the risk it would give the Kremlin broad access to their machines and data. The documents showed Kaspersky was not the N.S.A.’s only target. effort in 2008 that concluded that Kaspersky’s software collected sensitive information off customers’ machines. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, described a top-secret, N.S.A. A draft of a top-secret report leaked by Edward J. That question has taken on renewed importance over the last three months in the wake of United States officials’ accusations that Kaspersky’s antivirus software was used for Russian intelligence gathering, an accusation that Kaspersky has rigorously denied.įor years, intelligence agencies suspected that Kaspersky Lab’s security products provided a back door for Russian intelligence. But from a technical point of view, if an antivirus maker wanted to, was coerced to, or was hacked or somehow subverted, could it create a signature to flag classified documents?”
“I didn’t want to get into the complex accusations. “I wanted to know if this was a feasible attack mechanism,” Mr.
developer, and may have played a critical role in broader Russian intelligence gathering. Wardle’s curiosity was piqued by recent news that Russian spies had used Kaspersky antivirus products to siphon classified documents off the home computer of an N.S.A. Wardle recently succeeded in subverting antivirus software sold by Kaspersky Lab, turning it into a powerful search tool for classified documents. A former hacker at the National Security Agency, Mr.