<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div class="moz-forward-container"><font size="+1" face="Comic Sans
MS">-------- Forwarded Message --------</font>
<table class="moz-email-headers-table" cellspacing="0"
cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT"><font
size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">Subject: </font></th>
<td><font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">Re: Kaspersky ban</font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT"><font
size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">Date: </font></th>
<td><font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">Tue, 26 Sep 2017
19:39:09 -0400</font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT"><font
size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">From: </font></th>
<td><font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">Robert J. Stratton
III <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:bob@stratton.net"><bob@stratton.net></a></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT"><font
size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">To: </font></th>
<td><font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">Alex Fraser
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:beatnic@comcast.net"><beatnic@comcast.net></a></font></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><br>
<br>
</font>
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">
Sorry for the late post, but I just happened to see yours. Most
of what I've read in the media has conflated a number of things
into one confused mess. <br>
</font>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><br>
I have colleagues who were involved in some of the cases where
Ruslan Stolyanov and the FSB worked with big U.S. companies and
the FBI to take down people like major botnet operators. That
Forbes article is problematic - _of_course_ the FSB was involved
in those, in much the same way that the FBI was involved on our
side. Word on the street is that one of the really big criminals
they took down was making a fair amount of money for an
associate of Vladimir P. That would explain why several
well-respected security professionals have been arrested in and
around Russia in the past 18 months or so. <br>
</font>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><br>
I can only speak from the perspective of someone who has worked
at a global antivirus brand and had these kinds of
conversations. <br>
</font>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><br>
I would find it exceedingly unlikely that Kaspersky would
_wittingly_ do anything with their company or their product that
might threaten their customer base and brand, for the same
reason you're unlikely to see U.S.-based vendors in a similar
position do it. (I personally know some that have told multiple
governments to go pound sand on a pretty regular basis when they
made requests that would have impaired customers' trust.) <br>
</font>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><br>
That having been said, there is recent history of that country
going to owners of large, valuable companies and making them
offers they can't refuse. Take a look at what happened with the
sale of VKontakte, which is very much like Facebook for the
Russian-speaking world. Yes, the founder was paid for the
company. No, it probably wasn't quite what the market would have
borne. Yes, the only other alternative probably involved
incarceration for some arbitrary and convenient charge. <br>
</font>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><br>
I'm pretty sure that Mr. Kaspersky is living in London these
days, just like the guy who founded VK. <br>
</font>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><br>
Now if coercion is involved, all bets are off. I will leave it
to you as to whether you think that having a founder live in a
different country from the company he founded might be
illustrative in that regard. <br>
</font>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><br>
Many of the people who complain the loudest about perceived
supply chain threats are often the least well-informed. Line
staff in the U.S. military and DOD have been problematic in that
regard. Competing vendors have a history of sowing FUD (fear,
uncertainty, and doubt) about other competitors' products. I've
seen that personally too. <br>
</font>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><br>
Supply chain risk management is really difficult. It's a real
problem. It's really difficult to tell whether you actually have
a problem, and some of the vendors will instill fear in buyers'
staff in the hopes of locking their market. Don't expect to get
any decent picture of reality from magazine articles, because
it's even hard for people working daily in that world to get
one. <br>
</font>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><span>
</span><br>
--Bob<br>
</font>
<blockquote style="border: 0px none;"
cite="mid:WM!b0c1f84d4d8667a66f1e4e9885fb3c57e58c60d631b5e4a32a2c9a1eefbd83ab077de8247f835c46749575636a03dcc0!@mailstronghold-3.zmailcloud.com"
type="cite">
<div style="margin:30px 25px 10px 25px;" class="__pbConvHr">
<div style="width:100%;border-top:2px solid
#EDF1F4;padding-top:10px;">
<div
style="display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;vertical-align:middle;width:49%;">
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:beatnic@comcast.net" style="color:#485664
!important;padding-right:6px;font-weight:500;text-decoration:none
!important;">Alex Fraser</a></font></div>
<div
style="display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;vertical-align:middle;width:48%;text-align:
right;"> <font size="+1" color="#909AA4" face="Comic Sans
MS"><span style="padding-left:6px">Friday, September 15,
2017 11:51 AM</span></font></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="color:#909AA4;margin-left:24px;margin-right:24px;"
__pbrmquotes="true" class="__pbConvBody">
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"
http-equiv="content-type">
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"> What's going on with
Kaspersky Lab?</font>
<div><font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">-- <br>
<br>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>
No electrons were harmed in the creation of this message<br>
--------------------------------------------------------<br>
~~~******************* Alex Fraser *******************~~~<br>
--------------------------------------------------------<br>
[[[[[[~~^^^#___=>>>```/\/\**O**/\/\```<<<=___#^^^~~]]]]]]<br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS">_______________________________________________<br>
Tacos mailing list<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:Tacos@amrad.org" moz-do-not-send="true">Tacos@amrad.org</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://lists.amrad.org/mailman/listinfo/tacos"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.amrad.org/mailman/listinfo/tacos</a><br>
</font></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<font size="+1" face="Comic Sans MS"><br>
</font>
</div>
</body>
</html>