The US will ban the sale of all Kaspersky Lab products

Joe Biden's administration will soon announce a ban on the sale of anti-virus software products from the Russian company Kaspersky Lab in the United States and add it to the sanctions list.

Reuters reports this with reference to its source.

The White House is concerned about the fact that Kaspersky has large customers in the US, including critical infrastructure operators and state and municipal governments.

Washington views Kaspersky's close ties to the Russian state as a "critical risk": privileged access to its customers' computer systems gives the Russian company the ability to steal sensitive data, install malware and avoid critical updates, Reuters reports.

"Kaspersky Lab has not yet commented on these plans. In the past, it has insisted that it is a private company with no ties to the Russian state.

Two other Reuters sources reported that the administration plans to include Kaspersky on the list of sanctioned entities, which would mean that the company's US suppliers would be banned from continuing to work with the company, and would also hit its reputation and sales globally.

To ban the use of Kaspersky products in the US, the Biden administration intends to use the powers developed by the former Trump administration when it tried to ban TikTok and the Chinese messenger WeChat. However, this is not a completely reliable tool in many ways, as the ban on TikTok was overturned by the courts.

According to the agency, Kaspersky Lab's US customers will have to stop using its products and services as of 29 September. New deals with Kaspersky will be banned 30 days after the ban is announced.

Background. As a reminder, the US has cut Russia off from IT services: starting from 12 September, exports, sales, and supplies of IT services from the US and through third countries will be banned.