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WTF?! Kaspersky Lab has taken an unexpected stance over its current customers in the US after the Biden Administration banned its software. The Russian-based company is replacing its antivirus software in the US with a somewhat shady alternative – a security product no one in the industry knows anything about.
Kaspersky is handing the computer security of US customers to UltraAV, an "alternative" product with unknown anti-malware capabilities. The move comes after US authorities banned its software, forcing it out of the US market. However, switching to a completely different security tool is a development no one anticipated.
While Kaspersky will cease all its US operations by September 30, an unspecified amount of US customers have already experienced the change to UltraAV. The US-based company claims to offer "industry-leading protection" against all types of security threats and can connect up to 20 devices for family-wide anti-malware protection.
The company that owns the UltraAV brand, Pango, has a working relationship with Kaspersky, and Pango was recently acquired by another company named Aura. Kaspersky previously licensed one of its products to Pango, but no Russian code will likely be part of UltraAV's replacement solution for Kaspersky's anti-malware tools.
The company told The Register that it based its antivirus engine on an entirely different product made by Max Secure Software, an India-based security firm. The engine's driving force is Dr. Zulfikar Ramzan, an Aura employee with a PhD in computer science from MIT. Ramzan worked for six years at RSA as Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
However, the main issue with UltraAV is that industry experts have no relevant knowledge about the company or its supposedly effective anti-malware technology.
"We've a very close knit community in the AV business, so having a complete unknown is really unusual," an anonymous source revealed.
UltraAV is also deserting trade organizations like the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO). Security software manufacturers traditionally submit their code to third-party testers for an independent assessment. However, no one in the industry has seen UltraAV's software yet.
According to partial early tests by different antivirus labs, the "new" antivirus leaves room for improvement in both protection capabilities and usability. However, Pango assures consumers that it has scheduled a third-party test for the end of the year. Baffled US Kaspersky customers will now have to choose between sticking with the unknown UltraAV antivirus or replacing it with a different, more proven product.