Russian security firm Kaspersky denies deliberately lifting US spy tools

Eugene Kaspersky
Eugene Kaspersky has said the allegations are like a 'C movie' Credit: Getty Images

Kaspersky Labs, the Russian cyber security firm, has blamed a computer virus for its software taking classified files from America’s spy agency, as it denied colluding with the Kremlin.

The Moscow-based company has been at the centre of spying accusations after reports that Kaspersky’s popular antivirus software was used to access a National Security Agency (NSA) worker’s home computer and steal hacking tools in 2014.

The allegations, reported in the Wall Street Journal, have seen Kaspersky banned from US government computers, despite the company denying links to the Russian government.

Concluding an internal investigation into the incident, Kaspersky admitted that confidential hacking tools from the “Equation Group” - an organisation linked to the NSA - had been identified and uploaded onto Kaspersky servers from a computer near Baltimore, where the NSA headquarters are located.

However, it denied that this was done as part of a deliberate campaign.

Kaspersky said the files had been taken by the company because the computer had installed a pirated version of Microsoft Office that was ridden with computer viruses, while the Kaspersky antivirus software had been switched off.

It said once the software was switched back on, it scanned the computer and copied the viruses, including the existing NSA hacking tools, to Kaspersky servers for analysis. It said there was “no indication” that the files ever left its corporate networks and said the files were deleted as soon as it was discovered they were classified.

Instead, it suggested that the hacking tools may have ended up in Russian government hands because of the other viruses on the computer.

Kaspersky was founded by Eugene Kaspersky, a former software engineer in the Soviet intelligence service, and its antivirus software is used in millions of computers around the world. Mr Kaspersky has repeatedly denied any link to the Kremlin, and said the allegations are “like the script of a C movie”.

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