Is It Just Me?

[garioch7]

I have been a Kaspersky Premium (five seats, two years) customer for only five months.  I was so very happy to find such a great product.  Since 1988, when I started with PCs, I have used many different cybersecurity products at home and work over the years, but none were as refined and capable as Kaspersky.  In my opinion, as a UNITE-certified Malware Removal Expert and Instructor, it was the best in its class.

Then came the US ban on Kaspersky products.  Kaspersky chose to respond to that ban by silently, forcibly, without the explicit consent of their customers, installing an unknown, untested, dubious new AV product that no one had heard of in the malware removal community.  The reports to date on that replacement product are consistently negative.

Then came the recent removal of update capability via the Google Play Store (GPS) for their Mobile Security product.

I had to ask myself: would I recommend Kaspersky to anyone now, given that anyone following these Forums knows very well that Kaspersky representatives have not been responsive to the concerns expressed by the US Kaspersky customers or those of us from other countries who now find ourselves without the seamless (GPS) updates to our Android devices that were an implied part of our subscriptions.  We have been receiving platitudes and company "damage control" posts in Kaspersky's own Forums.

Kaspersky has now demonstrated to millions of US customers that they can forcibly modify their computers without their consent.  That is the definition of "malware."  In this case, Kaspersky delivered an inferior AV solution, but Kaspersky could have delivered a malicious malware payload instead, not just to their US customers but to all of their customers.  Think about it . . .

I have removed all of my devices from my Kaspersky account. That is the only sure way to prevent such possible future abuse.  For now, I have replaced their product with a reputable cybersecurity solution to protect my four devices.

I expect that this post will be removed, but I have a copy, which I will post on other reputable security Forums if it disappears or I am banned.  Forum Rules state that Forum members can provide feedback to Kaspersky.  That is what I am doing, in the hopes, perhaps naive, that Kaspersky will address the serious issues that its recent actions have raised.

Respectfully Submitted,
Phil