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Eset Russia, as a part of Leta Group which is connected to russian government, what those people do in Eset, what knowledge about Eset have they got?

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I, for one, don't think that ESET Russia nor any other ESET distributor nor ESET itself have any special connections with the government. You can ask the Russian distributor, however.

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The following would imply it does have Russian government connections:

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  • On October 7, 2010 announced LETA IT-company obtaining the license FSB Russia for an implementation of works, the data connected with use which are the state secret. The license is granted by the Department of FSB of Russia on To Moscow and the Moscow region, registration number 18134 of September 28, 2010.

According to Federal Law No. 5485-I "About the state secret" of July 21, 1993 activity of the enterprises for creation of information security tools, implementation of actions and rendering services in protection of a state secret is subject to obligatory licensing. Also licensing is necessary if the organization uses information which is the state secret in the work. At the same time the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of February 11, 2006 No. 90 "About the list of the data carried to the state secret" defines that certain data in the military sphere, in economy, science and technology, in foreign policy and also in the field of prospecting, counterprospecting and investigation and search operations get to this category. Respectively, the wide range of the organizations which at solving of tasks of cybersecurity can involve only the contractors and partners having the above-stated license is enough.

For LETA IT-company work with the state customers is one of the priority directions of business. Today in this segment of the Russian market of cybersecurity complex projects on personal data protection and implementation of systems for prevention of leakages of confidential data (DLP) and also check of compliance of cybersecurity organizational technical means to requirements of regulating documents and standards (compliance) and, in particular, training of customers for passing of the corresponding certifications are most demanded. The license of FSB of Russia allows LETA IT-company to execute more than such projects, to expand considerably a circle of consumers of the services in a public sector, to execute projects in the companies and the organizations where works are performed in special regime zones. It, first of all, the enterprises of military industrial complex and nuclear sector, the state and private companies performing the defense order and also some state institutions.

https://tadviser.com/index.php/Company:Leta_IT-company

Edited by itman
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Yes, but it's nothing illegal. Software vendors must receive a special certification in Russia before they can be used by government and state organizations.

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Least it be forgotten, Kaspersky software was banned from all U.S. government installations with subsequent sales banning by major U,S. retailers for its association with the Russian government. Subsequent detailed investigations showed this was justified.

Assumed and hopefully, Eset does not perform any software development activities in Russia. However that would not prevent product tampering in some form by a distribution source within Russia itself. At the minimum installation source data could be harvested and forwarded.

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7 minutes ago, itman said:

Assumed and hopefully, Eset does not perform any software development activities in Russia.

We don't. ESET HQ is located in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, a member of EU. We have also developers in Poland, Czech, Romania and some in the US who develop RMM plug-ins.

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14 minutes ago, itman said:

Least it be forgotten, Kaspersky software was banned from all U.S. government installations with subsequent sales banning by major U,S. retailers for its association with the Russian government. Subsequent detailed investigations showed this was justified.

Assumed and hopefully, Eset does not perform any software development activities in Russia. However that would not prevent product tampering in some form by a distribution source within Russia itself. At the minimum installation source data could be harvested and forwarded.

There was no evidence by the US Government that Kaspersky did spy on them

What actually happened that one of the employees used an Office crack , Kaspersky uploaded the whole folder which contained other things as far as I read if sources are correct.

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9 minutes ago, Nightowl said:

There was no evidence by the US Government that Kaspersky did spy on them

Yes, there was. It will take me some time to find the exact investigation details I found a while back.

Overall, the ban was initially put in place due to FSB certification requirements already noted:

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"This action is based on the information security risks presented by the use of Kaspersky products on federal information systems," DHS said.

"Kaspersky anti-virus products and solutions provide broad access to files and elevated privileges on the computers on which the software is installed, which can be exploited by malicious cyber actors to compromise those information systems."

According to DHS, there are requirements under Russian law that allow Russian intelligence agencies to request or compel assistance from Kaspersky Lab and to intercept communications transiting Russian networks.

"The risk that the Russian government, whether acting on its own or in collaboration with Kaspersky, could capitalise on access provided by Kaspersky Lab products to compromise federal information and information systems directly implicates US national security," the department continued.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/dhs-issues-directive-to-pull-government-use-of-kaspersky-lab-software/

Edited by itman
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This rather long article gets into some details of the Kaspersky ban not widely known. Excerpt below:

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Meduza and BuzzFeed News can reveal for the first time that the decline in fortunes of Kaspersky Lab was the result of an internal struggle for control that pitted allies of the Russian secret service against “tech-savvy” staff and Western investors. The managers within Kaspersky Lab, like Chekunov, with ties to Russia’s security agencies won that battle. But in so doing, they threaten to destroy everything the company has built outside Russia.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ilyazhegulev/russia-kaspersky-antivirus

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If I still remember correctly it was about some employee who used an Office crack along with another hacking tools that they have made , Kaspersky picked all of them up and uploaded to the Cloud which what it is designed to do.

 

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On 25 October 2017, Kaspersky confirmed that the incident described by The Wall Street Journal had occurred in 2014, and was the result of the software having detected a ZIP file containing samples and source code from the Equation Group. The user had enabled the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) features of the software, so the files were automatically uploaded to Kaspersky as a malware sample to KSN for analysis, under the assumption that it was a new malware variant. Eugene Kaspersky stated that he ordered that the sample be destroyed. Kaspersky claimed that the antivirus software had been temporarily disabled by the PC's user in order to install a pirated copy of Microsoft Office. When the software was re-enabled, it detected both the Equation Group code, as well as unrelated backdoor infections created by a keygen program for Office, which may have facilitated third-party access to the computer.

It is almost like children play , it is very funny , that you are sad because your Antivirus has done it's job well done

They develop backdoors , exploits , and then goes mad that their AV software detected their exploits and backdoors.

And what is more weird that they are trusting another country's product and then crying about it that it belongs to another country , instead of using their own or one of US cybersecurity products.

An Agency that is supposed to protect the people , is spying on them , exploiting their computers , attacking another countries and once catched by their own protection services , they go crying mode and ban products.

What happened with Kaspersky can happen with any AV product that has Automatic Upload to cloud for check , like ESET , Windows Defender,

Whatever is it , still the impact of the leak of the ransomware from the US Government is still to this day, no one is able to stop or slow the ransomware spread.

Will they ban Microsoft from their places and blame it for working with FBI if it was Windows Defender which detected those files?

And yet people are blaming the wrong side , instead of blaming the one who made the EternalBlue and made it worse for all people , they are blaming the one who picked it up and sent it for check, because it's malicious.

For my opinion , Kaspersky has done it's job perfectly.

I think they should know better when making malware and exploits and backdoors , you don't want your antivirus to be near them.

Edited by Nightowl
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On 02/02/2021 at 5:37 AM, Nightowl said:

If I still remember correctly it was about some employee who used an Office crack along with another hacking tools that they have made , Kaspersky picked all of them up and uploaded to the Cloud which what it is designed to do.

 

It is almost like children play , it is very funny , that you are sad because your Antivirus has done it's job well done

They develop backdoors , exploits , and then goes mad that their AV software detected their exploits and backdoors.

And what is more weird that they are trusting another country's product and then crying about it that it belongs to another country , instead of using their own or one of US cybersecurity products.

An Agency that is supposed to protect the people , is spying on them , exploiting their computers , attacking another countries and once catched by their own protection services , they go crying mode and ban products.

What happened with Kaspersky can happen with any AV product that has Automatic Upload to cloud for check , like ESET , Windows Defender,

Whatever is it , still the impact of the leak of the ransomware from the US Government is still to this day, no one is able to stop or slow the ransomware spread.

Will they ban Microsoft from their places and blame it for working with FBI if it was Windows Defender which detected those files?

And yet people are blaming the wrong side , instead of blaming the one who made the EternalBlue and made it worse for all people , they are blaming the one who picked it up and sent it for check, because it's malicious.

For my opinion , Kaspersky has done it's job perfectly.

I think they should know better when making malware and exploits and backdoors , you don't want your antivirus to be near them.

I think it's a lot more complicated. I'm simple terms, like China, there's lots of laws regarding local companies that deal with other countries. These laws seem to appear to allow the governments of these countries to spy on others using those companies. 

Sometimes even if the evidence is not there it is simply the worry of the possibility. The fact the US government banned agencies from using Kaspersky suggests many where, when using American based software does make more sense. 

Similar to Kasperky but on a larger scale, you have the issues with Huawei, which has equipment in key communication networks, which governments worry could give China access to a lot of information, data etc. I suppose part of the reason they worry is they will be trying to do similar things.

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43 minutes ago, peteyt said:

I think it's a lot more complicated. I'm simple terms, like China, there's lots of laws regarding local companies that deal with other countries. These laws seem to appear to allow the governments of these countries to spy on others using those companies. 

Sometimes even if the evidence is not there it is simply the worry of the possibility. The fact the US government banned agencies from using Kaspersky suggests many where, when using American based software does make more sense. 

Similar to Kasperky but on a larger scale, you have the issues with Huawei, which has equipment in key communication networks, which governments worry could give China access to a lot of information, data etc. I suppose part of the reason they worry is they will be trying to do similar things.

That applies to US software in another countries, is Microsoft spying on everyone and reporting to NSA and FBI in the end? or any other american cyber security companies?

If governments are worried about the products they are using or their people are using , then they should filter them , or atleast know what is inside. and when you rely on Russian AV more than you rely on your products , then it's your fault.

But I still say again in my opinion the US Gov was dramatic with their acts and bans , same as Huauei and same as Tiktok and same as Kaspersky , what if other countries ban their products , Twitter , FB , etc... , Apple , I don't see the democracy and freedom here.

Aren't they the same as Chinese/Russian products?

And again Kaspersky has done it's job perfectly , took the crack and other exploit/ransomware variants and uploaded it to their servers which what every AV is designed to do.

It's like having Cats and Rats in the same room , and then kicking your cats because they did catch the rats .. well that's what cats are.. and then go complain to the pet store you bought the cats from about the cats that they killed your rats.

I believe the NSA employees should know better when to develop viruses , exploits , ransoms , they don't need to have AVs running at the same time because they could take a look at the files they make.. as this is what they are made for.

After all it's all politics and economy , China doesn't need their Huauei product to hack other people, same as Russia. , but it would be bad politicaly and economical when your gov offices are using an Russian AV instead of American , and most of your people in the country are buying Chinese phones instead of American ones (I know all are made in China, but here the difference to who you pay and to who you will send your data)

and I believe Americans were buying the Huauei because of the Price , instead of buying an Apple that will cost you 5x Huauei Phones.

No one can deny that Kaspersky have one of the best AV engines in the market, and it won't be a surprise if they work with the government to cyber protect their services or whatever the usage is, after all they were made and based in Russia but after the incident they have moved to Switzerland.

Let's pretend Whatsapp and Facebook are Chinese , And all the data gathering , even with their policies changes , gathers everything about you and your life and send these data to the "interested" side , isn't this very bad? should US gov ban them ? Or because it's American products , it's fine to gather all data about people , it's us people don't worry :D

Doesn't Google gather everything about you? Argh I forgot Google isn't Russian/Chinese.

Edited by Nightowl
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10 hours ago, Nightowl said:

Aren't they the same as Chinese/Russian products?

Exactly. U.S. DHS has issued the following advisory to all U.S. businesses:

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The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned American businesses of the data theft risks behind using equipment and data services provided by companies linked with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/dhs-warns-of-data-theft-risk-when-using-chinese-products/

A personal example. I worked for the U.S. gov. prior to my retirement. Long before these currently exposed Chinese product use risks, it was standard practice in the agency I was employed to replace firmware on all new hard drives manufactured in People’s Republic of China (PRC). Note that almost all conventional hard drives and possibly SSD's are manufactured in China regardless of the purchase manufacturer; Seagate, Western Digital; etc.. A while back, I had a Toshiba HDD fail on me shortly after installation. They promptly shipped me a replacement shipped directly from mainland China as indicated by the shipping labels.

Edited by itman
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