Government employees still use Kaspersky despite the ban
- The use of Kaspersky products in the US has only fallen by 58%
- The software was banned almost three months ago
- 19 Government agencies still use the software
Kaspersky was banned in the US in September this year, but that hasn’t stopped employees from multiple government agencies from continuing to use Kaspersky products. New research from Bitsight has found that the Russia-based antivirus company still has a surprising number of customers within the US government.
It’s been almost three months since Kaspersky products were banned from use in the US after national security concerns grew around the Russian company, despite the organization’s continued denial of any Kremlin influence. However, research shows that 40% of government agencies still use Kaspersky products.
In fact, there are still so many active users that the US remains the company’s largest customer, with 19 government agencies actively using the software. Kaspersky is no longer allowed to sell or update its antivirus software in the US, but this has only led to a 58% drop in usage of the products.
Unacceptable risk to national security
Elsewhere, in countries such as Britain, Italy and Germany, warnings have been issued against the products, but no outright bans have been imposed. Despite this, Germany has seen a 69% drop in usage, so this has arguably been more effective.
Many Kaspersky customers have been forced to replace their antivirus products with partner software UltraAV, meaning there has been a significant global decline in the use of the company’s software since the ban.
This is not the first time Kaspersky software has been found in use after the ban came into effect. Some users report that they are not concerned about data theft and are unwilling to blindly trust the US government on this matter, while others simply do not want to. to waste the money they had already spent.
If the trend continues, it seems likely that Kaspersky’s products will be virtually out of use in the future, but this could still take several months.