Kaspersky defends force-replacing its security software without users’ explicit consent


Earlier this week, some U.S. customers of Kaspersky’s antivirus were surprised to find out that the Russian-made software disappeared from their computers and had been replaced by a new antivirus called UltraAV, owned by American company Pango.

The move was the result of the U.S. government’s unprecedented ban on Kaspersky, which prohibited the sale of any Kaspersky software in the country. The ban on selling the company’s software became effective on July 20, while the ban on providing subsequent security updates to existing customers will become effective on September 29.

Read more…
Source: TechCrunch News


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • North Korean Kimsuky Actors Leverage Malicious QR Codes in Spearphishing Campaigns Targeting U.S. Entities

    January 8, 2026

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is releasing this FLASH to alert NGOs, think tanks, academia, and other foreign policy experts with a nexus to North Korea of evolving tactics employed by the North Korean state-sponsored cyber threat group Kimsuky and to provide mitigation recommendations. As of 2025, Kimsuky actors have targeted think tanks, academic institutions, ...

  • CISA warns of active attacks on HPE OneView and legacy PowerPoint

    January 8, 2026

    The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added both a newly discovered flaw and a much older one to its catalog of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV). The KEV catalog gives Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies a list of vulnerabilities that are known to be exploited in the wild, along with deadlines for when they ...

  • Illinois health department exposed over 700,000 residents’ personal data for years

    January 8, 2026

    The health department for the U.S. state of Illinois has confirmed that a years-long security lapse exposed the personal information of more than 700,000 state residents. The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) said in a statement on January 2 that an internal mapping website containing residents’ personal information, which officials used for assisting with the ...

  • One million customers on alert as extortion group claims massive Brightspeed data haul

    January 7, 2026

    US fiber broadband company Brightspeed is investigating claims by the Crimson Collective extortion group that it stole sensitive data belonging to more than 1 million residential customers, including extensive personally identifiable information (PII), as well as account and billing details. Brightspeed is one of the largest fiber broadband providers in the US and serves customers across ...

  • US cyber attacks plunged Caracas into darkness

    January 4, 2026

    US cyber attacks cut off power to large areas of Caracas to allow planes and helicopters to strike key military sites and capture Nicolás Maduro. Cyber command, space command and other American agencies layered effects to ensure more than 150 of its planes, drones and helicopters could approach the Venezuelan capital undetected. Cyber operators blacked out ...

  • Cybercrook claims to be selling infrastructure info about three major US utilities

    January 2, 2026

    A cybercrook claims to have breached Pickett and Associates, a Florida-based engineering firm whose clients include major US utilities, and is selling what they claim to be about 139 GB of engineering data about Tampa Electric Company, Duke Energy Florida, and American Electric Power. The price is 6.5 bitcoin, which amounts to about $585,000. Based in ...