The Trump administration is on the verge of deciding whether to block all federal agencies from using products developed by a popular Russian cyber-security firm, which is under increasing scrutiny for alleged ties to Russian intelligence services, government sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
A final decision could be made in the coming days over whether to strip the Moscow-based firm, Kaspersky Lab, from the General Services Administration's (GSA) list of outside vendors whose products are approved for use by government agencies, the sources said. "That's a big move and is going to have some legal implications," one senior U.S. intelligence official told ABC News. Removing Kaspersky Lab from the list — known as the "GSA Schedule" — would likely only impact future contracts, ABC News was told.
If the Trump administration does move to block government agencies from using the company's products, it would mark the most significant and far-reaching response yet to concerns among current U.S. officials that Russian intelligence services could try to exploit Kaspersky Lab's anti-virus software to steal and manipulate users' files, read private emails or attack critical infrastructure in the United States. Classified Senate briefing expands to include Russian cyber firm under FBI scrutiny
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For weeks, the White House, Department of Homeland Security, GSA and other federal agencies have been conducting an "interagency review" of the matter, sources said. The company has repeatedly insisted it poses no threat to U.S. customers and would never allow itself to be used as a tool of the Russian government.
Kaspersky Lab's CEO, Eugene Kaspersky, recently said any concerns about his company are based in "ungrounded speculation and all sorts of other made-up things," adding that he and his company "have no ties to any government, and we have never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with their cyber-espionage efforts."
Nevertheless, the FBI has been pressing ahead with a long-running counterintelligence probe of the company, and in June FBI agents interviewed about a dozen U.S.-based Kaspersky Lab employees at their homes, ABC News was told.
In addition, as ABC News reported in May, the Department of Homeland Security in February issued a secret report on the matter to other government agencies.