The U.S. Senate voted on Monday to ban cyber-security company Kaspersky Lab software from U.S. government systems over suspected ties to the Russian security services.
Last week federal agencies were ordered to stop using Kaspersky products within three months, citing concerns that Russian authorities could infiltrate government networks using Kaspersky’s anti-virus products. The directive follows the Trump administration’s removal of Kaspersky from the list of approved U.S. state agencies’ software vendors this summer.
The latest ban prohibits the use of “any hardware, software, or services developed or provided” by Kaspersky Lab across the U.S. government and was passed in a 89-8 vote.
The author of the amendment, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, said the bill works to protect national security.
“I’m very pleased that the Senate has acted in a bipartisan way on my amendment that removes a real vulnerability to our national security,” she said.
