Reuters: Antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab tried to sabotage competing AVG

The American press agency Reuters has published another article in which Russian antivirus company Kaspersky Lab is accused of dubious business tactics. The antivirus vendor denies the allegations and calls the accusations false and meritless.

KasperskyLabLogo

ADVERTISEMENT

Two weeks ago Reuters posted a story in which two anonymous former Kaspersky Lab employees accused the company of sabotaging competitors. Kaspersky Lab founder Eugene Kaspersky denied the accusation and argued that two angry former employees were behind the story. He also criticized Reuters for not providing any proof of the allegations.

Today Reuters posted another story, again based on former employees of the antivirus company, in which they state Eugene Kaspersky instructed employees to attack competing antivirus vendor AVG.  The aim, according to the Reuters story, was to trick the AVG scanner in detecting clean files as malware which could have disastrous consequences for AVG users. Reuters also cites from mails that are claimed to be originating from Eugene Kaspersky.

In a statement the Russian antivirus vendor argues the cited mails could be fake and that the anonymous ex-employees could have a hidden agenda.

ADVERTISEMENT

"Taking supposed statements out of context and greatly speculating on their meaning, does not provide evidence for these ongoing false allegations by disgruntled, ex-employees. Kaspersky Lab has never conducted any secret campaign to trick competitors into generating false positives to damage their market standing. Such actions are unethical, dishonest and illegal. Accusations spread by disgruntled ex-employees are meritless and simply false", according to Kaspersky Lab on their website.

Eugene Kaspersky has tweeted that the story is BS (bullshit) and the start of a new wave of sensationalist investigative journalism.

ADVERTISEMENT

No posts to display