Kaspersky Labs, the embattled security vendor, has sued the Department of Homeland Security on Monday. The company alleges that, because the agency essentially blacklisted Kaspersky in September over its alleged links to the Russian government, it has unduly suffered as a result.
Specifically, Kaspersky says that, due to the way DHS’ Binding Operational Directive (BOD) was issued, the company didn’t have adequate time to respond to the government’s concerns, which immediately had a deleterious effect on its business.
“While DHS professed to give Plaintiffs an opportunity to contest the BOD and change DHS’s decision before the 90-day mark, by allowing Kaspersky to make a written submission to DHS near in time to the 60-day mark, this process was illusory and wholly inadequate because it failed to satisfy even the minimum standards of due process,” lawyers representing Kaspersky wrote in the civil complaint filed Monday in federal court in Washington, DC.
“In actuality, the debarment of Plaintiffs and the damage caused was immediate and complete upon the issuance of the BOD. The process for identification, removal, and discontinuation had been initiated immediately upon issuance, all government agencies were prejudiced against Plaintiffs’ software at that time, and the process could therefore not have been adequately unwound.”
Last month, the Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab admitted that, for almost two months in 2014, servers belonging to it received confidential National Security Agency materials from a poorly secured computer located in the United States that stored the files, most likely in violation of American federal law. However, the company denies being part of any attempt to steal the NSA files.
“Kaspersky Lab has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyber-espionage or offensive cyber efforts, and it’s disconcerting that a private company can be considered guilty until proven innocent, due to geopolitical issues,” the company said in a September 2017 statement.
https://arstechnica.com/?p=1234173