On September 18, 2017, the U.S. Senate enacted legislation prohibiting the use of Kaspersky products in all executive branch agencies. Yevgeny Kaspersky, the founder of Kaspersky Lab said on September 28, 2017 that the U.S. government knows well that his company doesn’t engage in espionage. The cybersecurity executive believes that the reason his company was targeted is that it is based in Russia.

Mr. Kaspersky stated, “I am more than certain that they, i.e., the U.S. officials, know that we aren’t capable of doing what is alleged. Because there are thousands of technical people that work in our company. These are not some lone programmers sitting in a basement in dirty sweaters and writing separate pieces of the code.”

According to Mr. Kaspersky, his business is a victim of the geopolitical situation and the antagonism between the U.S. and Russia.

In the words of Mr. Kaspersky, the U.S. authorities target all that is from Russia. “We are targeted because we operate in Russia,” the executive added. Kaspersky Lab has three offices in the U.S., one of which is located in Washington, D.C.

In commenting on the charges the U.S. lawmakers leveled at Kaspersky to the effect that the company engages in espionage in service of the Russian government, Mr. Kaspersky said that it would make no sense for software companies to do so because it would effectively spell a “death sentence” to all cybersecurity firms in the country. Russia’s computer security sector brings in billions of dollars every year.

Mr. Kaspersky stated that it would not be feasible to incorporate any hidden components into the software applications his company produces because Kaspersky Lab screens all of the components during third-party quality control processes.