The U.S. government announced on Friday the imposition of sanctions on twelve executives and senior directors of the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, located in Russia.
In a statement, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department indicated that it designated these twelve company executives to protect Internet users from malicious cyber threats.
“Today’s action against the leadership of Kaspersky Lab highlights our commitment to ensuring the integrity of our cyber domain and protecting our citizens from malicious cyber threats,” stated Brian E. Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, quoted in the statement. “The United States will take action when necessary to hold accountable those who facilitate or enable these activities.”
The list of sanctioned individuals includes several members of Kaspersky’s board of directors, including Andrei Anatolyevich Efremov, who is also the director of business development, and Igor Gennadyevich Chekunov, the company’s legal director.
Additionally, the sanctions were imposed on the global head of human resources, Marina Mikhaylovna Alekseev, the head of communications, Denis Vladimirovich Zenkin, and the chief technology officer, Anton Mikhaylovich Ivanov, among others.
OFAC clarified that it did not sanction Kaspersky, its parent companies or subsidiaries, or its founder and CEO, Eugene Kaspersky.
A Treasury spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comments on why Eugene Kaspersky was not included in the sanctions. A representative from Kaspersky also did not respond to a request for comments.
The current sanctions will make it difficult for the sanctioned executives to start new businesses and will effectively prevent U.S. customers and companies from paying Kaspersky. Earlier this year, the U.S. government imposed similar sanctions against the spyware manufacturer Intellexa and its founder.
These sanctions are announced a day after the U.S. government communicated an “unprecedented” ban on the sale of Kaspersky software in the United States, which will take effect on July 20. Kaspersky will be able to continue providing software updates to existing customers until September 29. After that date, U.S. customers still using Kaspersky will not be able to receive updates, leaving their antivirus software outdated and potentially unable to stop the latest cybersecurity threats.
Sawyer VanHorn, a Kaspersky spokesperson, mentioned on Thursday that the company would challenge the ban.
For years, the U.S. government has taken action against Kaspersky, fearing it could be used as an instrument of influence by the Russian government to help it hack U.S. targets or otherwise harm national security. In September 2017, the Trump administration banned the use of the company’s software in government agencies. Earlier that year, it was reported that Russian government hackers stole classified U.S. documents from the personal computer of an intelligence contractor, which at that time was running Kaspersky antivirus.
By: Nestor Castillo, ForAllTechNews Director
Photo: Wilkimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0