Germany’s cybersecurity authority has warned against the use of antivirus software from Russia-based company Kaspersky.
The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) issued the statement in light of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian information technology companies could be spied on or forced to launch cyberattacks, he said.
Kaspersky told BBC News that the warning had been “made for political reasons” and that he had no links to the Russian government.
The BSI did not allege current problems with Kaspersky products, but said the conflict in Ukraine and Russian threats against the European Union, NATO and Germany brought with them the risk of cyberattacks.
“A Russian IT manufacturer may carry out offensive operations itself, be forced to attack target systems against their will, or be spied on as a victim of a cyber operation without their knowledge or as a tool for attacks against their own customers,” notice the warning. he said she.
The BSI recommends that Kaspersky antivirus products be replaced with alternatives, but with care to avoid weakening defenses.
In 2017, President Donald Trump signed legislation prohibiting the use of Kaspersky software within the US government.
The same year, the UK’s National Cyber Security Center announced that it would write to all government departments, warning against the use of Kaspersky products for systems related to national security.
Following BSI’s warning, Eintracht Frankfurt soccer club spokesman Axel Hellmann told Bloomberg: “We have notified Kaspersky management that we are ending [our] sponsorship agreement with immediate effect.
“We are very sorry about the development.”
Kaspersky said it would seek clarification from BSI on its decision, which was “not based on a technical evaluation of Kaspersky products”, and how to address their concerns.
As a private global cybersecurity company, it “has no ties to Russia or any other government.”
Its data processing infrastructure had moved to Switzerland in 2018
And “the security and integrity of our data services and engineering practices have been confirmed by independent third-party assessments.”
“We believe that peaceful dialogue is the only possible instrument to resolve conflicts,” he said.
“War is not good for anyone.”
Similar comments from founder Eugene Kaspersky two weeks ago drew strong criticism.
“Better to have remained silent than to have called an invasion a ‘situation’ that requires a ‘compromise,'” tweeted Rik Ferguson of rival cybersecurity firm TrendMicro.
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