Kaspersky

Russia’s Top Cyber Sleuth Foils US Spies, Helps Kremlin Pals [wired.com]

excerpt...

Serving at the pinnacle of such an organization would be a remarkably powerful position for any man. But Kaspersky’s rise is particularly notable—and to some, downright troubling—given his KGB-sponsored training, his tenure as a Soviet intelligence officer, his alliance with Vladimir Putin’s regime, and his deep and ongoing relationship with Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB. Of course, none of this history is ever mentioned in Cancun.

What is mentioned is Kaspersky’s vision for the future of Internet security—which by Western standards can seem extreme. It includes requiring strictly monitored digital passports for some online activities and enabling government regulation of social networks to thwart protest movements. “It’s too much freedom there,” Kaspersky says, referring to sites like Facebook. “Freedom is good. But the bad guys—they can abuse this freedom to manipulate public opinion.”

I recommend not using Kaspersky products or Russian or Chinese security products, in general.

Kaspersky went in the crapper, too many false positives and no way to control the over-ride to allow those false positives to be safe.

I've run everything from Agnitum to Zone Alarm and avast! Free edition is about as good as any shareware I've actually paid for and used.
Hell, I've even run AV software NONE of you have probably even heard of, like F-PROT & Eset for instance.

The fact that avast! takes themselves not so serious and uses a lower case "a" to name their product appeals to a certain side of me as well.
They don't rely on bold claims & screaming ALL-CAP namebranding, they let their product do the talking for them.

This may sound like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory but I firmly believe many, if not most, viruses are set loose in the world - in some black op way - by the very people selling AV products, just to keep the cash cow milking.
The recent arrest of a former Russian AV coder for doing just that, only serves to reconfirm my suspicions.

Kaspersky himself is a polarizing figure who is at present the head of biggest AV company in the world and a strong advocate of totalitarian-extremism in controlling the internet.
"Too many bad guys out there", he says.
Not very surprising, given his very close ties to the Russian FSB, (former KGB's successor.)

Google spies on you [dailymail.co.uk]
Microsoft spies on you [networkworld.com]
George W. Bush (a.k.a. Obama) spies on you [networkworld.com]

With a single documented case of spying by Kaspersky his sales would go down the toilet

Kaspersky himself is a polarizing figure who is at present the head of biggest AV company in the world and a strong advocate of totalitarian-extremism in controlling the internet.
"Too many bad guys out there", he says.
Not very surprising, given his very close ties to the Russian FSB, (former KGB's successor.)

I hate green