The comments come as a former Kaspersky senior official claimed that Kaspersky Lab is controlled by former Russian spies with the ability to access client and user data. Kaspersky has repeatedly denied all allegations by US security officials that its software enables Russian espionage.
Echoing the Times' columnist, Bryan Seeley, cybersecurity expert and advisor to John McAfee & MGT Capital, told Radio Sputnik that while "it would be stupid to ignore the issues with what is going on in the political climate" and that there is always a risk of corruption, avoiding products made by Kaspersky Lab will not help, as the company's antivirus software is similar to that of its competitors. If people are concerned by Russian software, they should be concerned by similar products as well.
"Whether it is all happening or not there are other antivirus softwares that [intruders] could switch to that would do just as good of a job," Seeley told Sputnik. "That's the number-one thought in my head — why don't you just switch [and] use Symantec, use NOD or any one of these other things?"
He added that the idea of security in the hacking world is elusive because "everything can be hacked."
"There was an article yesterday about exploiting a vulnerability within Intel's management engine framework that you can actually hack a device that is off, and people have figured out ways to get encryption keys just based on the hard drives spinning noises from another room, without actually seeing the machine," Seeley said.
As for anything else in hacking, Seeley said, one doesn't even have to leave their seat to take part in anything online.
Regarding US intel service accusations toward Kaspersky Lab for providing a back door for Russian espionage — despite there being no proof — the expert said he wants to see what gets uncovered and what is actual evidence and fact, not ‘conjectured rumors,' adding that "too many law-enforcement groups here in the United States use Kaspersky products without having any issues whatsoever."