- Kaspersky products alone have seen a 58% decline in usage in the US.
- The software was banned almost 3 months ago.
- 19 government agencies still use the software
Kaspersky was banned in the United States in September of this year, but that hasn’t stopped workers at multiple government agencies from continuing to use Kaspersky products. New research from Bitsight has revealed that the Russia-based antivirus company still has a surprising number of customers within the US government.
It has been almost 3 months since Kaspersky products were banned for use in the US after national security concerns around the Russian company increased, despite continued denials of any Kremlin influence from of the organization. However, research shows that 40% of government agencies still use Kaspersky products.
In fact, there are so many active users that the United States remains the company’s largest customer, with 19 government agencies actively using the software. Kaspersky can no longer sell or update its antivirus software in the United States, but this has only caused a 58% decrease in use of the products.
Unacceptable risk to national security
Elsewhere, such as the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, warnings have been issued against these products, but no outright bans have been put in place. Despite this, Germany has seen a 69% decline in use, so it has arguably been more effective.
Many Kaspersky customers have seen their antivirus products replaced by software from partner UltraAV, meaning there has been a significant global decline in the use of the company’s software since the ban.
This is not the first time that Kaspersky software has been found to be in use after the ban went into effect: some users reported that they were not worried about data theft and were unwilling to blindly trust the US government. . US on this issue, while others were simply not willing. waste the money they had already spent.
If the trend continues, it seems likely that Kaspersky products will be largely phased out in the future, but this may take a few months.
