I suspect there is a secret background story, like every so often when intelligence agencies are involved. Maybe Kaspersky didn't cooperate with the NSA as much as they'd wished for, or Russian intelligence interfered to prevent this. It looks to me like somebody is holding a very special grudge against this company.
I'm merely speculating, of course. Personally, I never take ordinary public announcements or claims from intelligence agencies at face value, since they have plenty of reasons to lie and disinform. That doesn't entail that their secret reports are bogus, of course, and senate hearings are also reliable. I've followed the senate hearings close enough to be reasonably certain that the US intelligence community is right about the accusations concerning Russian meddling in politics in the US and the EU. But that's a different case, people were testifying under oath in front of senate committees and senators from both parties who went to meetings behind closed doors were also convinced of the (classified) evidence.
As for Kaspersky, the information is unreliable and my personal guess is that whatever happened wasn't their fault. If someone has malware on his machine, it's the job of the antivirus software to detect and analyze it. If at all, the story has increased my overall trust in the technical quality of Kaspersky software.
Another speculation that I find overall credible is that since Snowden's revelations there is some concerted effort to further discredit the NSA in order to weaken their ability to operate. If that's so, then this campaign seems to be quite successful.
I'm merely speculating, of course. Personally, I never take ordinary public announcements or claims from intelligence agencies at face value, since they have plenty of reasons to lie and disinform. That doesn't entail that their secret reports are bogus, of course, and senate hearings are also reliable. I've followed the senate hearings close enough to be reasonably certain that the US intelligence community is right about the accusations concerning Russian meddling in politics in the US and the EU. But that's a different case, people were testifying under oath in front of senate committees and senators from both parties who went to meetings behind closed doors were also convinced of the (classified) evidence.
As for Kaspersky, the information is unreliable and my personal guess is that whatever happened wasn't their fault. If someone has malware on his machine, it's the job of the antivirus software to detect and analyze it. If at all, the story has increased my overall trust in the technical quality of Kaspersky software.
Another speculation that I find overall credible is that since Snowden's revelations there is some concerted effort to further discredit the NSA in order to weaken their ability to operate. If that's so, then this campaign seems to be quite successful.