Kaspersky, Now a Security Risk Y/N?

[Kapkirk]

Weird thing happened last night, I have been using Kaspersky Labs Internet Security on my desktop for years with no issues, but seeing as it had only 20 days remaining on the Licence and with it being Russian owned I decided to remove it and use something else. I really can't trust it anymore, especially as I do online banking and loads of other financial stuff on it, and especially after this evening.

After removing it I found some of my private password files (normally zipped up and password protected itself) had appeared on my desktop, like they had been unzipped, this is simply not possible to do easily and by mistake. Some of the files that were open have not been used for at least 2 years so I would know if I opened them.
(The master password is not on the PC and is only known by me .. or so I thought. I also noticed my recycle bin was empty (it shouldn't be as I have not emptied them for about a week)
This begs the question, has this software been upto no good but hiding it until I removed it? The new Software I installed did not find anything bad like keyloggers, Malware or trojans but I am glad I removed it anyway. If you are using Kaspersky do you trust now?

 

[JollyJamma]

If you are using Kaspersky do you trust now?

I don't know. I like Kaspersky. It's one of the few anti virus programmes that does what it sets out to achieve.

It's operating company is based in the UK so there's some oversight of the matter from that perspective (I'm not sure to what degree of oversight is implemented but it's there).

If you have so many concerns, so be it. Uninstall it.

I can't see it being an immediate issue but maybe Putin will prove me wrong. He doesn't seem to be guided by logic or any reason these days so who knows.

 

[pcaddy]

I've used Kaspersky internet security for many years and have been extremely happy with it, I just renewed it in January but since the war with Ukraine started I just can't bring myself to use anything from Russia, so last week I completely uninstalled it and bought Bit Defender Total Security. The pair of them are always top in the list of the best security products and I feel happy in my decision to make the change.

 

[outoftheknow]

Just to note - the thread topic is reasonable about software security risks. but please avoid posting about the conflict itself. There is a thread for that elsewhere.

 

[pcaddy]

Apart from not wanting anything Russian because of the war a huge reason for getting rid of Kaspersky is incase they should allow Russian hackers (government backed) access to the PC in order to use it as part of a bot network to attack any of our infrastructure, which could be done as it updates itself and being the security on the PC you would have no protection from it. For me it's a risk to far to keep it installed.

 

[Kapkirk]

Apart from not wanting anything Russian because of the war a huge reason for getting rid of Kaspersky is incase they should allow Russian hackers (government backed) access to the PC in order to use it as part of a bot network to attack any of our infrastructure, which could be done as it updates itself and being the security on the PC you would have no protection from it. For me it's a risk to far to keep it installed.

Very sensible, and I hope more users follow suit, for the sake of £20 to use a different AV solution it's really not worth the risk.