Kaspersky Lab Plans Swiss Data Center To Combat Spying Allegations, Report Says (reuters.com) 47
An anonymous reader shares a report: Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab plans to open a data center in Switzerland to address Western government concerns that Russia exploits its anti-virus software to spy on customers, according to internal documents seen by Reuters. Kaspersky is setting up the center in response to actions in the United States, Britain and Lithuania last year to stop using the company's products, according to the documents, which were confirmed by a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The action is the latest effort by Kaspersky, a global leader in anti-virus software, to parry accusations by the U.S. government and others that the company spies on customers at the behest of Russian intelligence.
This doesn't really solve anything (Score:5, Insightful)
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Agreed, I don't see how having a Swiss data center will stop the Kremlin from going to Kaspersky and saying, we need information on your Customers. Please put an update to collect such information, or we will have some Tea in London.
Because they will need to access such data center from Russia. Download what ever they need and upload patches for the software... A Swiss data center isn't going to be investigating on what traffic is going in and out, evaluating the byte-code of the software updates.
To be tr
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As a Swiss, I don't have much faith in the EU's version of democracy... not that ours isn't also going down the drain, mind you, but for me working democracy means that the voting populace is open and able to rational discussion instead of fear- and hate-mongering. It also means that the press is free (not just from the government but also from the agenda of stockholders).
I don't know a single country to date where I get that sense.
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You might want to seriously consider whether that's not merely based on a misperception. People are way more pessimistic than they need to be. For various contingent historical reasons, there are currently strong forces that want to undermine general trust in mass media and democratic institutions. These are in the minority but very loud, especially on the Internet. Moreover, new media have helped flooding us with mostly veridical but also mostly negative news. Taken together, these trends create the percep
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they would need to completely vacate Russia before I trusted them.
Why do you need to trust them? Do you regularly travel to regions and countries where Russia has authority to arrest/kill you? Do you keep classified national security data on your 'net-connected computer?
An an American not involved in anything defense-related, I have far less to fear personally from Russia/FSB than I do from US TLAs and the US government/law enforcement in general. They are certainly not trustworthy and have the ability to snatch you up and ship your ass off to a "black site" or simply by
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A poor guy working at Marriot Hotels was recently canned because he liked a comment on Twitter than the Chinese gov disagreed with. China simply told Marriot, fire the guy or we make things hard on you.
Does your employer do anything with Russia? Do any of your vendors, suppliers, partners? You have a very simplistic view. You don't need to live in those territories, you simply need some remote connection that they can use to apply pressure.
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A poor guy working at Marriot Hotels was recently canned because he liked a comment on Twitter than the Chinese gov disagreed with. China simply told Marriot, fire the guy or we make things hard on you.
Does your employer do anything with Russia? Do any of your vendors, suppliers, partners? You have a very simplistic view. You don't need to live in those territories, you simply need some remote connection that they can use to apply pressure.
Nope.
I have no pressure points they can use.
The only option they have with me is murder, as you pointed out. I don't think they'd seriously bother, honestly. Even if the risk was real I wouldn't let that prevent me from doing or saying what I want.
Thanks for alerting me to Marriot. I'll be certain to never do business with them again.
Strat
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Do you regularly travel to regions and countries where Russia has authority to arrest/kill you?
No, but recent events in the UK seem to indicate that that isn't really a factor they think about
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transparency (Score:2)
Because the Swiss are so known for their transparency laws when it comes to records...
Good solution (Score:2)
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Re:Fake solution (Score:2)
Anyone who believes that Kaspersky's moves can have any real life effect is a rube. This Potemkin data village will be setup so that russian spooks will be able to access anything they want, either overtly or covertly.
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Bits don't use electrons in Switzerland. They use neutrons.
You can take your datacenter out of Russia... (Score:5, Informative)
You can take your datacenter out of Russia, but taking Russia our of your datacenter is much harder.
And harder still is to flush the FSB-agents [washingtonpost.com] and collaborators out of your personnel.
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Every country is working for its own self interest.
Yes America is spying. So are the other countries. However, every country when they find a spot where they can find is a spot for spying, they will try to lock it down.
Do you seriously going to think that America is going to have a policy. "Well because we are spying on you, you can spy on us too."
No America is going to find new ways to spy on other countries, while locking down ways we are spied upon. Other countries are doing the same too.
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What the heck, Ill feed the trolls today.
The issue at hand isn't who is right or wrong. It is just the fact that every country will defend it's own self interest. And a sovereign nation will not do an action that is against its own self interest.
To stop a country from doing an action, you will either.
A. Go to war and take over its sovereignty. (or at least have a threat against this)
B. Use Diplomacy to show such actions are actually against the net self interests of the country.
C. Adjust your relationship
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Two evils don't make a right. Besides, the US government has only prohibited government agencies from using Kaspersky on their official government machines. Anybody is free to use Kaspersky at home or for their private company.
That's very reasonable. I would personally go much farther. I personally don't think that government agencies should use anything else than software from their own country or (even better) open source software. It's crazy that people in government institutions in my country are allowe
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doubleplus grate. And the chocolate ration has increased to 20g this week.
Broken Trust (Score:1)
Unfortunately, trust is fickle. Repeat an accusation enough the it never needs to be proven. In this manner an accusation can destroy a person, company, or country. Trust no matter how strong broken. The echo chambers of internet make this cruel human trait pronounced. Time is the only solution for Kaspersky. This short term solution was very poorly executed.
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Trust is fickle. It always has been.
If your trust isn't fickle, then chances are you probably have been radicalized into that group.
Being that Kaspersky isn't convicted of any crime, we are just not buying their services. It is up to them to regain our trust. Which is difficult, but not impossible.
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Our Bundesrat is very open to bending over and taking it from just about anyone... so yeah, interesting marketing stunt on Kaspersky's side.
Won't help (Score:2)
We pioneered this technology (Score:2)
US Steel sets up plant in Brownsville TX and lay a pipeline across Rio Grande and spew pollution in its sister plant in Matamoros, Mexico! Been there, done that, got the TShirt (made in bangaladesh)
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You're always going to have a trust problem (Score:2)