Two things this article just ZOOMS over but are critical:
1. If Israelis were "burrowed deep" in Kaspersky's network, sure, Russian hackers may have been, too - but so could have anyone else. Also the Israelis are not exactly fans of the Russians, and are our primary (sole?) Middle East ally, so there is bias and uncertainty there.
2. From the article:
"The allegations, all attributed to unnamed officials with no supporting documentation, helped explain why the US Department of Homeland Security in September took the unprecedented step of directing all US agencies to stop using Kaspersky products and services"
So we're not even mentioning how in May the Senate was already taking Kaspersky to task, and there were rumors of them getting the boot even in 2016? The allegations don't explain shit, they are just another facet of a year long political battle between the American legislative branch and intelligence services against Kaspersky.
It is plausible that the U.S. government made these files go through Kaspersky just so they could have leverage over them for a deal they wanted (like spying on their own country), or that a stupid contractor put them on their laptop along with Kaspersky AV, and the NSA got caught with it's pants down, they're using the Israelis to try to cover the embarrassment. This is not out of the ordinary behavior for an intelligence service.
Look at it this way: flip the roles. Would Russia try a play on their contracts with a U.S. company to further their goals?
1. If Israelis were "burrowed deep" in Kaspersky's network, sure, Russian hackers may have been, too - but so could have anyone else. Also the Israelis are not exactly fans of the Russians, and are our primary (sole?) Middle East ally, so there is bias and uncertainty there.
2. From the article:
"The allegations, all attributed to unnamed officials with no supporting documentation, helped explain why the US Department of Homeland Security in September took the unprecedented step of directing all US agencies to stop using Kaspersky products and services"
So we're not even mentioning how in May the Senate was already taking Kaspersky to task, and there were rumors of them getting the boot even in 2016? The allegations don't explain shit, they are just another facet of a year long political battle between the American legislative branch and intelligence services against Kaspersky.
It is plausible that the U.S. government made these files go through Kaspersky just so they could have leverage over them for a deal they wanted (like spying on their own country), or that a stupid contractor put them on their laptop along with Kaspersky AV, and the NSA got caught with it's pants down, they're using the Israelis to try to cover the embarrassment. This is not out of the ordinary behavior for an intelligence service.
Look at it this way: flip the roles. Would Russia try a play on their contracts with a U.S. company to further their goals?