Kaspersky Founder Admits that the Software Copied Files that Were not Direct Threats

Kaspersky promised transparency and it appears that it is determined to offer it. However, this might only continue to worry users. Recently, Eugene Kaspersky, the founder, offered an interview with Reuters where he declared some worrisome things.

Kaspersky took files that were not threats

The CEO did confirm that the antivirus software did target some files that were non-threatening and they were copied as well. For example, GrayFish was one of the removed programs, and that is a tool that should corrupt the startup sequence of Windows.

While this is not something that radical, it remains something important, especially since because of the company’s possession of classified NSA files. And it is indeed strange to see an antivirus software that targets files who are not a direct threat for the computer.

This might worry a lot of users, especially since there are plenty of rumors about Russian espionage, and everything is considered suspicious. The actions of Kaspersky are hard to excuse if we consider the fact that usually antivirus tools ask for the user’s permissions before anything is uploaded.

These declarations lead to a bigger conversation where we should ask ourselves just how powerful are antivirus programs and how much data can they collect from a computer. If anything, this might lead to some changes when it comes to all the information that is taken by these programs.

Other claims

There are also other things that were not confirmed by the founder. For example, various sources mention that the Kaspersky antivirus software did take from their computer a picture of a suspected hacker. Eugene Kaspersky did not confirm this. He also did not talk about other cases where hackers might be helped to get away with it.