For many years, the company’s ties to the Russian government have been a concern. The most obvious one that comes to mind is the Russian firm Kaspersky, which has gotten a lot of complaints about its lack of response to the Ukrainian crisis. It’s enough to make you think of the potential code written in places that your country might not have the greatest relationship with. Case in point: I once used software in my office network that was sold by Microsoft but partially coded in Shanghai. But it’s often hard to know exactly where software is coded, given the world-wide nature of technology. Often, to sell software in a particular country, vendors have to provide source code or additional information. Specifically, defense officials wanted to ensure that no software with Chinese or Russian provenance would be purchased. In 2018, the Pentagon put together a “ do not buy” list of software companies anyone working with defense contractors should avoid. The concern over foreign software isn’t new. For many years, one security software vendor in particular was tagged as possibly having Russian ties - and as far back as 2017, the US government banned the use of Kaspersky antivirus over fears the security software could spy on defense contractors for Russia. Obviously, this comes up as the world sees what’s going on in Ukraine. That’s one of the questions online users at have asked in recent weeks.

Kaspersky secure connection reddit