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Kaspersky Lab moving core systems from Russia to Switzerland

Something that caught our eye this morning is news that Kaspersky Lab will be moving some of its core infrastructure from Russia to Switzerland.

The firm says this is part of its Global Transparency Initiative and that it will also open a Transparency Center in Switzerland this year. The Transparency Center will showcase the history of Kaspersky Lab products and, by extension, the company’s commitment to protection.

The move will see customer data storage and processing and software assembly being moved to Switzerland too.

“To ensure full transparency and integrity, Kaspersky Lab is arranging for this activity to be supervised by an independent third party, also based in Switzerland,” the firm says. This supervision appears to extend beyond the move and into Kaspersky’s future.

“Kaspersky Lab is arranging for the data storage and processing, software assembly, and source code to be independently supervised by a third party qualified to conduct technical software reviews. Since transparency and trust are becoming universal requirements across the cybersecurity industry, Kaspersky Lab supports the creation of a new, non-profit organisation to take on this responsibility, not just for the company, but for other partners and members who wish to join,” Kaspersky added.

The move from Russia comes months after the USA’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an order that banned Kaspersky Lab products from being used by federal agencies.

The DHS believed that Kaspersky Lab products contained security holes and that exploiting the software to gain access to federal networks was trivial at best.

The agency was also concerned that the security firms ties to the Russian government and laws in the country put sensitive data at risk.

Moving out of Russia then makes sense from a business standpoint as the firm may not have to comply with Russian legislation that can force companies to intercept communications on a Russian network. Taking the user database out of Russia means it’s tougher for Russia to get access to data it might not be allowed to access.

Kaspersky Lab’s user data should be moved to Zurich, Switzerland by the end of 2019.

 

[Image – CC BY 2.0 David Orban]

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