After Kaspersky was blacklisted in the USA, the antivirus specialist has now decided to leave the US market altogether.

Kaspersky Labs is leaving the US market. The antivirus specialist himself told the BBC. Kaspersky describes the decision as sad and difficult. However, the company is more or less forced to do so after President Biden’s administration blacklisted Kaspersky.

Russian pressure

This was due to alleged ties to the Russian government. The US considers Kaspersky a serious threat to domestic security. The US is not necessarily referring to the bad intentions of Kaspersky itself. “Russia has demonstrated that it has the ability and intent to exploit Russian companies like Kaspersky to collect and weaponize Americans’ personal data,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in June. The government also fears that Moscow could misuse Kaspersky’s antivirus software to plant malware in American companies.

The security company doesn’t have much choice. Selling licenses or even offering updates will no longer be allowed from the end of September, and acquiring new customers will soon become illegal.

Kaspersky has offices in 31 countries around the world, but its headquarters are in Moscow. Europe also views Kaspersky with suspicion. In Germany, a call for domestic companies to be wary of corporate software has been circulating since 2022.