US Government Ban on private use of Kaspersky anti-virus

[Danila T.]

9 hours ago, MauleGuy said:

Interesting.  I looked on AVtest and UltraAV is nowhere to be found.  Is this simply Kaspersky Total Security or other Kaspersky package repackaged under a different name to get around the USA ban?

Hello,

UltraAV is a different company and our trusted partner. You can find more information about UltraAV at https://UltraSecureAV.com

[skowronek]

FWIW, ultrasecureav.com has been around for all of 2 months (https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/ultrasecureav.com). Without too much digging, my bet is KAV has incorporated out of RU and is "reselling" as UAV. I guess we'll all find out once we install the "new" product! 😉

[nickle]

On 9/6/2024 at 3:53 PM, skowronek said:

FWIW, ultrasecureav.com has been around for all of 2 months (https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/ultrasecureav.com). Without too much digging, my bet is KAV has incorporated out of RU and is "reselling" as UAV. I guess we'll all find out once we install the "new" product! 😉

After they actually confirmed the communication is from the company, this is also my bet. I they are just doing a "rebranding", i am taking it. But still quite a feat to try to position a well-known product into a very random existent one. We will see how this goes  

[Arius]

I am in the US running Kaspersky Endpoint Security on Linux. Yesterday September 21st was first time its database update could not complete with 'database out of sync' message; tested using a VPN into Mexico which successfully updated. Today (9/22) Endpoint Security updated successfully without VPN. Kaspersky Internet Security on Windows has not had any database update issues, yet.

Perhaps Kaspersky was testing their US server disable procedures - or it was a temporary network glitch.

Waiting to see how it goes on October 1st.

[nickle]

Honestly what the company has done Today was the worst possible thing they could have done. Pushing the installation of the replacement antivirus is definitely not the way to do it. But I gave it a try, and so far, it is not good. If I was not aware of what the product is, I would consider malware. The fact you can even close it tells the whole story. I was expecting at least a rebranding, but I guess that was too much to expect. Anyway, I will be uninstalling that thing. Honestly, I have lost a lot of trust in this company after Today, I am guessing I will be losing 2 years of license and a couple of hundreds in all this clow show

[roscolo]

I simply connect each computer I manage to a VPN to a less restrictive nation, and Kaspersky updates and works just as great as it ever has. Looking forward to using Kaspersky for many years to come.

[GCA_IT]

6 hours ago, roscolo said:

I simply connect each computer I manage to a VPN to a less restrictive nation, and Kaspersky updates and works just as great as it ever has. Looking forward to using Kaspersky for many years to come.

That you know of, is there a reasonably easy way to point all

traffic to a single PC that has a working VPN program, then

point all PC's on the LAN to that VPN'd PC ?  Kaspersky may

not be able to say it outright, but one of our fellow customers

(victims of an evil, illegitimate regime with zero respect for

property rights or freedom of any kind) should surely have

found a simple, straightforward method in 5 or less easy

steps.  I mean, it's just IP traffic.  An organization with dozens

upon dozens of licenses paid ahead for amounts measured in

years should not have to forfeit *anything* because of the

puppetmasters pulling Biden's strings.  I am disgusted.  With

Kaspersky Pure & Kaspersky Total Security keys registered to

a US based My Kaspersky account, this is an absurd outright

theft and interference with normal operations.

[GCA_IT]

7 hours ago, roscolo said:

I simply connect each computer I manage to a VPN to a less restrictive nation, and Kaspersky updates and works just as great as it ever has. Looking forward to using Kaspersky for many years to come.

Roscolo, wouldn't it be easiest to just enable a VPN connection

on a local UDM-Pro that routes all traffic to Kaspersky's update

servers through a VPN so that when Total Security or Pure running

on any PC or Mac on the LAN goes to look for updates, the

Kaspersky servers "see" the traffic as coming from somewhere

besides the US ?

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but this type of method at the

*router* level would:

 

1)  require zero configuration / modification of the settings / software

running on individual desktop & laptop Windows PC's, Macs, & phones

that are connected on that LAN (run seamlessly / invisible to all of the

devices on the LAN)

and

2)  for the sake of speed (& other reasons) *only* route the traffic on

the LAN that's heading out to the Kaspersky update sites via the VPN,

and leave the rest of the network's LAN to internet traffic alone, as if

none of this ever happened,

and

3)  be a one-&-done bypass, network-wide, for this issue, forever

?

[MojaveNana]

My parents were two of your first customers when you entered the US market years ago.   We have it now and love it.  As a person of Russian decent I thought it was  kinda cool and never felt like your company was any risk, and I still don’t.  So I’m sorry that you  were forced out.  It sucks.  We will continue to use this new company and thank you for the many years of cyber security.   

[GCA_IT]

If you have multiple PC's on a LAN that has as its primary

gateway / router a Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro (UDM-Pro)

and you have spent untold amounts of money for Kaspersky

security software licenses which do not expire for months or

years, and you do not want to switch to the replacement stuff,

and/or you do not want to accept any lesser software for your

security, you can do this:

 

1)  Create a FREE Proton VPN account.  (It's a Swiss company that makes the

     highest-rated VPN software.)

2)  Install their software onto a device, such as your phone.

3)  Using that device, choose one of the free servers that is not in the US as your

      preferred server.

4)  Use that device to create a standard configuration file that is for WireGuard

     that routes your traffic through a non-US server.

5)  Download that WireGuard configuration file to your phone & email it to yourself.

6)  On your LAN, grab that WireGuard configuration file you emailed to yourself

     and save it to the hard drive of a PC you use on your LAN.

7)  Log in to your UDM-Pro and go to the settings (a gear icon), then choose VPN.

8 )  Click on the VPN Client tab.  From here, you can upload that config file.

9)  After you have created that (videos exist online, but often assume you know how

     to do various other steps above), you will need to create a route rule to make

     certain traffic flow through that VPN pipeline.  (Don't worry, it's not nearly as

     complicated as it may sound.)

10)  When you create that route rule, just make it specific to one domain:  Kaspersky.com

11)  Once this is all done, you should be able to click around & check that VPN client in

      your UDM-Pro and see traffic going through it.  From a PC on your LAN, you can

      initiate a check for Kaspersky updates & look at network traffic flowing through that

      VPN client & the route rule you made.  (This is cool to see.)

 

If this has been done correctly, all the network traffic on your LAN -- including all your

PC's with Kaspersky Pure, Kaspersky Total Security, etc. will try to access various

Kaspersky update servers to find & download their updates.  When they do, that specific

traffic -- & only that traffic -- will be routed through Proton VPN servers and come out

the non-US nation of your choice.

 

You will not have to change settings on *any* of your individual machines on your LAN.

It will just send the traffic where it needs to go, seemlessly -- & free.

[Larry Guy]

the free version of proton doesn't change servers. i used windscribe.

[GCA_IT]

I used the free version of Proton VPN and *was*

able to choose a free server in a non-US country.

(I had to click around a bit on my phone to find the

setting & select a server so that the configuration

file would tell the router to send the info. through

a Proton VPN server in that nation.)

 

This is not a theory.  I personally verified it by doing it.

The free version of *Kaspersky's* VPN does not allow

the use of any non-US servers from here.  Maybe that's

what you were thinking about.

[Larry Guy]

i think the latest update for free users removes country selection

[alex56]

6 hours ago, Larry Guy said:

i think the latest update for free users removes country selection

That didn't happen to me. By contrast, Windsribe config generator is a paid feature and free account doesn't support building Wireguard or OpenVPN config files. In Proton account you can build non-US config files for Wireguard or OpenVPN without installing any app. GCA_IT presented another way using phone app to create config files which could be more complicated but I trust his/her way.

[Larry Guy]

im new to using a vpn. i was trying to only update kaspersky on one computer. after installing new version of proton i couldn't change server. i googled it and on rededit i found they have been rolling out the new version slowly starting a year ago. you still might be able to connect to one of the other 4-5 free servers in another country but it's random, and there is a timer and it just kept connecting me to US. the new free version doesn't generate a config. so i tried free windscribe next and found i could change server but if it doesn't generate a config then it won't work for a LAN.

i assume you guys haven't updated free proton in a while. so if you have an older one you don't want to update it. or i read it could work if you had a config even though the new version doesn't generate one. 

except for installing the new free proton version and not being able to change servers, everything else i said is just theory. i might not know what i am talking about or doing.

[alex56]

8 hours ago, Larry Guy said:

i assume you guys haven't updated free proton in a while. so if you have an older one you don't want to update it. or i read it could work if you had a config even though the new version doesn't generate one.

Just tested and created some configs, and then installed Wireguard app. I can connect with it.

New text and image capture from my free office:

"WireGuard configuration
These configurations are provided to work with WireGuard routers and official clients."

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by alex56
image problems

[alex56]

8 hours ago, Larry Guy said:

except for installing the new free proton version and not being able to change servers, everything else i said is just theory. i might not know what i am talking about or doing.

I just upgraded Windows 11 to 24h2, and I'm still searching and fixing damages. One damage was that Proton app didn't connect after upgrade and I uninstalled it. But I can use Wireguard app if I will, though Proton configs leak my dns without any fix.