Kaspersky: Biden administration preparing to prevent Americans from using Russian-made software over national security concern | CNN Politics
Kaspersky: Biden administration preparing to prevent Americans from using Russian-made software over national security concern | CNN Politics
The Biden administration is preparing to take the unusual step of issuing an order that would prevent US companies and citizens from using software made by a major Russian cybersecurity firm because of national security concerns, five US officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
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Kaspersky is just one piece of software to avoid. Others include:
- Telegram
- Avast AV
- Anything from 360 Safe / Qihoo 360
- Opera browser ... now owned by above
- Zoom
- FileZilla / UTorrent / other PUA that bundles adware and acts essentially as a trojan
Add in:
- TikTok
- Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Threads
- Reddit :)
For antivirus, Microsoft's built-in one is fine. Ideally use an OS that has better security and lower default permissions like popular Linux distros (at the very least, it's a smaller target than Windows). I haven't checked recently, but using Malware Bytes for occasional runs (not as active protection though) was good and is probably still good.
But in general, use FOSS, at the very least they'll probably not pull a Reddit and screw over their users.
Seriously. Windows Defender is an excellent piece of software, and its all you need. Paying for anything else is kinda foolish.
If you're on windows, you dont need anything else except maybe to install malware bytes once a month, run the scan, and uninstall it.
This is Lemmy. Chances of people here not using Windows is relatively high.
You know what they say about assuming things.
I would say that the fact that I used the word 'chances' would suggest I wasn't assuming anything.
I would also suggest that the very large Linux communities would support my non-assumption.
Oh, so its like a card game
"I say Chance! and nullify your Astral Assumption card!"
No? It's like a guess. You've heard of guesses before, right?
Yeah, always make assumptions. They make conversations faster.
This just feels like a random hit list; how did you come up with it?
Why zoom? It's based out of San Francisco.
I also object to the Telegram inclusion. Unless you want to include Discord, and various other server side encrypted communication apps. The founders may be Russians by birth but they have Ukrainian roots, are no longer Russian citizens, had their first company stolen from them by the Kremlin, etc. Also I always like to note, Einstein was a German by birth but he was no Nazi.
What's the FileZilla connection? Tim Kosse (which as far as I can tell it's still the primary author) is a German.
Honestly, Zoom just has a hilariously high frequency of vulnerabilities being discovered.
I mean... That's fair, I don't recommend zoom, but those reasons have nothing to do with Russia and everything to do with a company that was willing to lie that they had E2EE and didn't.
This very partial list is based on my being in cyber security for 20 years and working a variety of incidents involving these apps. You all can do whatever you want with your computers.
That you didn't give a helpful answer makes me doubt you where as before I was interested in what you had to say.
Telegram is better than WhatsApp. At least it has a decent Linux client, and all clients are open source. WhatsApp has neither.
Unless you're constantly using secret chats all your data is stored in plain text... This is actually worse than WhatsApp
You got an answer why it's not.
Maybe better client and more features. But Russians have full access to servers and messages. They could read whatever they want. It's a fact that proved during war that Russia started in Ukraine.
This is nonsense. The Founders of Telegram are exiles from Russia.
Ah fuck, what's the alternative to FileZilla?! I've been using that for like 17 years.
So just to illustrate, I went to the normal FileZilla download page and downloaded the Win64 package. Then I submitted it to VirusTotal.
https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?platform=win64#close
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/dbde8a4bd71bb1fbc0511cdb657dfeffdaedc513aa425f856043532a7cba6fce
If you click other versions, there are installers without the adware.
Those dumbasses have been doing this for years. I don't know if it has viruses and such in it but it has had the bundled stuff for a while now.
I wish it didn't since it's a great program.
filezilla has an opencandy installer
As someone who has used FileZilla for years, I am shook and I appreciate you pasting the link
Dolphin on KDE/Linux and WinSCP on Windows
I think whatever GNOME calls their file browser supports FTP as well.
It surely does, but i'm not sure if you can switch to side-by-side view
Then use the kde file browse.
Winscp?
Cyberduck
Same here.
CrossFTP seems promising. Also has the multi OS support.
I'd say avoid AVG too then since it's basically Avast.
I don't even use antivirus software anymore. Previously, every time I found a new one recommended by security experts I thought I could trust, about a year later, it turned to shit or was relieved to always having been shit. Now I just backup my stuff and vet any executable. I don't do any serious work on my Windows install anyway, so nuking it isn't a problem.
Out of curiosity, why Telegram? (Im out of the loop on this one)
As for uTorrent, I’ve got version 2.2.1 and have never allowed it to update in the last decade or however long it’s been. I think that was the last version that didn’t allow any ads or otherwise and was simply a solid p2p client at the time.
Because it's less (because of history stored on server and use of OTR being problematic) secure than ICQ in year 2003, prone to phishing and, yes, made by people I wouldn't trust.
may I ask why didn't you just switch to qbittorrent? is there a feature that utorrent has but qbit doesn't?
Never needed to or even thought about it. uTorrent never gave me any issues and was super lightweight. Additionally, there was a fansubbed anime site I was a member of for a long time that had a limited whitelist of p2p clients last they would allow their trackers to function on. uT 2.2.1 was one of those.
That pc seldom gets used anymore nowadays anyway, as my main pc is running OpenSuse and ktorrent does all I need it to.
Because Russians started it I guess?
If you forget everything else, it's basically an unencrypted chat where the company behind it can read all your messages.
Like discord?
I never cared about discord so I don't know, but I'd assume so, yes.
Does Escape from Tarkov make the list?
Just don't use it for secure comms and anything tangentially connected for what you consider "secure" matters. Simple as.
Telegram ftw. Down with WhatsApp.
Signal has better defaults and a less compromised origin
Nobody I know is using it so the point is almost moot :(
There's nothing really wrong with telegram.
It's just social media for people who aren't indoctrinated by the west.