Kaspersky Lab Takes Legal Action Against the U.S. Government Over Antivirus Software Ban
Anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab has asked a U.S. federal court to overturn a Trump administration ban on use of its products in government networks, arguing that the U.S. government has caused reputational and commercial damage to the Moscow-based company.
Kaspersky Lab filed an appeal in federal court challenging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Binding Operational Directive 17-01, which requires federal agencies and departments to remove Kaspersky's products from federal information and federal information systems.
The software ban was codified last week when President Donald Trump signed legislation banning Kasperky Lab from use across civilian and military agencies.
Kaspersky maintains that DHS failed to provide Kaspersky Lab with adequate due process and relied primarily on "subjective, non-technical public sources like uncorroborated and often anonymously sourced media reports and rumors in issuing and finalizing the Directive." The company says that DHS has harmed its reputation and its commercial operations "without any evidence of wrongdoing by the company."
Kaspersky said in October it would submit the source code of its software and future updates for inspection by independent parties.
U.S. officials have said that step, while welcome, would not be sufficient.