Earlier this week, some U.S. customers of Kaspersky’s antivirus were surprised to find out that the Russian-made software program disappeared from their computer systems and had been changed by a brand new antivirus known as UltraAV, owned by American firm Pango.
The transfer was the results of the U.S. authorities’s unprecedented ban on Kaspersky, which prohibited the sale of any Kaspersky software program within the nation. The ban on promoting the corporate’s software program grew to become efficient on July 20, whereas the ban on offering subsequent safety updates to current clients will develop into efficient on September 29.
A spokesperson for Pango, the cybersecurity firm that owns UltraAV, defended the automated migration, which in apply meant roughly one million U.S. Kaspersky clients grew to become UltraAV clients in a single day. At a technical stage, that meant Kaspersky uninstalled itself from clients’ machines, and UltraAV put in itself, with none consumer interplay.
That lack of consumer interplay — or request for consent — is what confused and anxious some former Kaspersky clients.
“Principally, on my computer systems, Kaspersky pushed an uninstall of the Kaspersky merchandise and pushed an automated set up of UltraAV & UltraVPN onto my computer systems,” Avi Fleischer, a former buyer of Kaspersky, had beforehand advised TheTrendyType. “They need to’ve given me the choice to just accept UltraAV or not.”
“They need to NEVER push software program onto somebody’s pc with out specific permission,” mentioned Fleischer.
Kaspersky’s spokesperson Francesco Tius advised TheTrendyType that, “the migration course of began originally of September, of which all Kaspersky clients within the U.S. eligible for the transition have been knowledgeable in an e mail communication.” Tius mentioned that for Home windows customers, the transition “was accomplished robotically.”
Tius mentioned within the e mail that this was accomplished to make sure Home windows customers “wouldn’t expertise a spot in safety upon Kaspersky’s exit from the market.” (Home windows 10 and 11 have their very own baked-in antivirus made by Microsoft, known as Defender. If a Home windows consumer has a third-party antivirus, after which uninstalls it, Defender switches again on robotically, according to Microsoft.)
Customers on Mac, Android, and iOS gadgets, alternatively, “wanted to manually set up and activate the service following the directions on the e-mail,” mentioned Tius.
Tius blamed the truth that some customers have been unaware of the transition on the truth that they “didn’t have an e mail registered with Kaspersky.”
“These customers have been knowledgeable of the transition through in-app message solely,” mentioned Tius, who additionally pointed to an FAQ posted on UltraAV’s website. Neither the in-app message, nor UltraAV’s web site web site, explicitly say that Home windows customers would expertise a software program uninstalling itself and putting in a very totally different software program. On high of that, UltraAV is a model new antivirus with no earlier monitor file or revealed safety audit, including to the considerations of shoppers.
Pango spokesperson Sydney Harwood made largely the identical factors as Tius in a collection of emails with TheTrendyType.
Rob Joyce, the previous director of cybersecurity on the Nationwide Safety Company, wrote in a series of posts on X that this automated migration confirmed why granting Kaspersky software program trusted entry to anybody’s pc was a “large danger.”
“That they had complete management of your machine,” wrote Joyce.
Martijn Grooten, a cybersecurity guide and the previous editor of Virus Bulletin, a publication protecting the antivirus business since 1989, advised TheTrendyType that, “in the end, if you happen to set up software program, it could replace itself to develop into one thing totally new, change branding and/or change possession.”
“That’s all a danger you implicitly settle for and all of it occurs commonly,” he mentioned, including that he doesn’t keep in mind one other time an antivirus did the identical factor. “They need to have in all probability knowledgeable individuals higher, on condition that safety software program is determined by belief, however even in that case, some individuals would have ignored the warning.”
