On the finish of September, Kaspersky forcibly uninstalled and changed itself with a brand new antivirus known as UltraAV on the computer systems of round 1,000,000 People, lots of whom have been stunned and aghast that they weren’t requested to offer their consent for the change. The transfer was the tip results of the U.S. authorities ban on all gross sales of Kaspersky software program within the nation and — at the least in principle — marked the tip of Kaspersky in America.
However not everybody within the U.S. has given up on the Russian-made antivirus. Some People have discovered methods to get across the ban and are nonetheless utilizing Kaspersky’s antivirus, TechCrunch has discovered.
A number of individuals who dwell within the U.S. mentioned in posts on Reddit that they’re holding out as Kaspersky clients. When TechCrunch requested them about their motivations, their causes vary from being skeptical of the explanations behind the ban, or having paid for the product already, to easily preferring the product over its rivals.
“It’s well-known to be the most effective [antivirus] on the earth and has a protracted observe report. There’s 0 precise proof of it being ‘spy ware’ and I can’t simply blindly imagine one thing that has no proof supporting it,” a U.S.-based Reddit consumer who goes by Blippyz informed TechCrunch in a direct message.
One other Reddit consumer, nicknamed YouKnowWho_13, who continues to make use of Kaspersky antivirus from New York, mentioned they aren’t apprehensive concerning the allegations that Kaspersky has abused its entry to some People’ computer systems to siphon off delicate information again to the Russian authorities.
“Hey I’m only a cashier…,” they informed TechCrunch, implying that they aren’t an fascinating goal for cyberspies. including that the ban on Kaspersky gross sales was “a bit too harsh” and pointless. “[I] used to it for 10 years. Drive of behavior haha. It’s a pleasant product.”
The way in which these customers are getting across the gross sales ban is twofold. First, they bought their license or key previous to the ban, which means they haven’t violated the gross sales ban and sanctions by sending cash to the Moscow-based cybersecurity firm. Second, they use a VPN or have manually added a non-U.S. server to the listing of replace servers, which implies that within the eyes of Kaspersky, they successfully will not be U.S. customers.
Kaspersky didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark.
Avi Fleischer, a long-time Kaspersky consumer who lives in Brooklyn, NY, informed TechCrunch that he’s additionally nonetheless utilizing the software program on his dwelling pc. Fleischer defined that when the ban got here into full impact, the “Kaspersky Safety Community” — a service “designed to obtain and course of complicated international cyberthreat information” — grew to become unavailable, however he was capable of nonetheless get updates for virus definitions by pointing the replace server to 1 outdoors the US.
“And now it’s capable of replace the virus definitions robotically,” Fleischer mentioned, including that he’s not utilizing a VPN.
YouKnowWho_13 mentioned they purchased a world license key off of eBay. Like others, they mentioned they added an replace server that’s outdoors of the US within the Kaspersky app to proceed receiving safety updates.
As soon as their license key expires, YouKnowWho_13 mentioned they are going to change to antivirus rivals ESET or Bitdefender.
One other Reddit consumer, Das1996, informed TechCrunch that they’re utilizing a VPN to get updates and have a license key that expires in round three or 4 months. As soon as that occurs, they mentioned, they are going to resolve what to do. However “if the VPN choice works properly, I’ll proceed to make use of ’em,” mentioned Das1996.
Domingothegamer, a Reddit consumer who sought assistance on the web site after they couldn’t replace their Kaspersky software program, mentioned that they nonetheless have a three-year license, with two years left, for 10 gadgets. For them, leaving Kaspersky “seems like an enormous waste simply due to the ban.”
They mentioned they don’t even want to make use of a VPN, and that other than including new servers to get the updates, “it’s only a service like typical.”
