For many years, Kaspersky has been my go-to security software. It’s really good - it’s fast, light, and thorough. It finds threats other software doesn’t, and it removes threats other software can’t.
But events in Ukraine over the last few days have convinced me that it’s not a good idea to have software on my computer that could be controlled by the Russian government. So Kaspersky has gone, and it’s been replaced by Bitdefender.
Of course, Putin has been planning his present action for months. Perhaps years. If the Russians were going to recruit my computer into a malicious botnet, or use it as a spam virus factory, the software could already have been covertly installed. If it’s my security software doing the installation, how would I know?
In the face of state-sponsored cyber warfare, there’s only a limited amount the private citizen can do.
So, with some regret, goodbye, Kaspersky.
I have never trusted Russian software because I have never trusted Putin nor his mafia-style ex-KGB cronies who own many of the businesses in Russia.