Kaspersky Lab Software Subjected To Reverse-Engineering By Spy Agencies

The Intercept revealed recently that anti-virus software, such as the ones designed by Kaspersky Lab, were considered as an obstacle to intelligence gathering work by personnel working for the National Security Agency and their British counterparts. Due to this, they worked on foiling it.

Documents leaked by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, showed the efforts of the spies in thwarting the software. It concentrated on vendors that included the Moscow-based company. The company reportedly has more than 400 million clients around the world.

The report said email and web traffic between the software of Kaspersky and its servers were monitored by the NSA and the Government Communications Headquarters of the UK. These efforts allowed the agencies to acquire sensitive client information.

Kaspersky Lab Software Reverese-Engineered - image credit: rappler.com

The agents wanted to reverse-engineer the software of the company as shown on a warrant renewal request that was made available by The Intercept. The British agency considered the software as an obstacle to its intelligence gathering activities, and wanted to find a way to bypass it through reverse-engineering.

The warrant was crafted to the agency permission for its reverse-engineering activity on the software. But, a report from The Intercept doubted the legality of the warrant. A spokeswoman from Kaspersky Lab said the company is reviewing the information contained in the report in order to evaluate its effect on the infrastructure of the company.

Posted by George Daniels on Tuesday June 23 2015, 4:27 PM EDT. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Technology. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0