Blog Entry #16

Kaspersky Banned in the USA

The United States has banned Kaspersky in June of 2024. People have until September to find an alternative product. After that, you will not get software updates and virus database updates. That's bad, because if we don't get those updates, the product cannot protect us adequately. Unfortunately, the reason behind the ban is in my opinion, based off of retribution and paranoia. Yes, Kaspersky is a Russian based company, however, they are not the evil zealots the government wishes us to believe. I think we banned them because of the Ukraine war. Allegedly this was a decision based out of fear and paranoia. In my view, it has zero merit. 

Kaspersky is one of the best antivirus products out there. It's fast, lightweight and its detection ratio is outstanding. I've used Kaspersky for many years now and I can say with absolute certainty, that I've never gotten a virus, never gotten hacked and never had an issue with its products. This is clear government overreach, in my view. Kaspersky is planning on suing, and I hope they win, but I fear that may not be the case. There is the strong possibility that it will not survive long enough to get to court. Be that as it may, I'm keeping Kaspersky until the very last day I can. I suggest you do the same. 

However, if you want an alternative, Bitdefender is an excellent choice, one that I will personally use if I have to switch. I've used Bitdefender for a long time, and never had any issues with it. The free product used to be set it and forget it protection. Once installed, it just worked. It updated automatically, it dealt with threats automatically and the only thing you could tell it to do was to run a full system scan. However, it ran scans when the system was idle as well. Today, Bitdefender's free antivirus is more robust and user friendly. There are some options you can play with, but not alot unless you want to pay for the full version. However, it's not necessary. The free version is just fine and does an excellent job at system protection. 

In conclusion, I don't know how this will play out, or how badly this will backfire. However, I do know that people should be free to use whatever product they wish. Kaspersky is not a threat to national security. Kaspersky is not spying on its users and Kaspersky is not facilitating attacks against the US, nor will Kaspersky be used as a kill switch to shut down every PC in the US that uses it. 

If you need to download Bitdefender, you can do so here.