Following an article published yesterday by Bloomberg claiming that Kaspersky Lab, one of the world’s largest cyber security firms, cooperates closely with Russian intelligence, the Moscow-based company has gone on the offensive to deny the accusations.
Bloomberg deserves a “PhD for ‘banya journalism,’” Eugene Kaspersky, one of the company’s founders and leading shareholders, said on Twitter.
“Numerous allegations, misinterpretations & fakes. This story is BS brewed on political agenda.”
In its article, Bloomberg said it had gained access to Kaspersky Lab’s internal emails which showed that the company “has maintained a much closer working relationship with Russia’s main intelligence agency, the FSB, than it has publicly admitted.”
“It has developed security technology at the spy agency’s behest and worked on joint projects the CEO knew would be embarrassing if made public,” Bloomberg wrote.
Kaspersky Lab, founded in 1997, is one of the fastest-growing anti-virus and cyber security software firms in the world, and it claims to have more than 270,000 corporate clients and 400 millions users worldwide. In 2016, the company had a revenue of more than $700 million.
The company on Tuesday defended itself against the allegations of collusion with the FSB in an online statement, saying that, “Kaspersky Lab is very public about the fact that it assists law enforcement agencies around the world with fighting cyberthreats, including those in Russia, by providing cybersecurity expertise on malware and cyberattacks.”
The company continued to say that it had “never received a request from the Russian government, or any affiliated organization, to create or participate in ANY secret projects, including one for anti-DDoS protection.”
“When assisting in official Russian cybercrime investigations, in accordance with Russian law, we only provide technical expertise throughout the investigation to help them catch cybercriminals.”