Kaspersky has its own security breached yet again
It hasn't been smooth sailing for security vendor Kaspersky Labs over the last few years. Back in 2008, the company's Malaysian website was defaced by a Turkish hacker via an SQL injection. In 2009, their U.S. support site was compromised -- again by the use of an SQL injection.
Following the second breach, Kaspersky's Roel Schouwenberg lamented, "This is not good for any company, and especially a company dealing with security." He's sure right about that. It's about as bad as things could get for an anti-malware provider... Right?
Well, almost. There is one possible scenario which is slightly worse: having your legitimate, well-known security site hacked so that it redirects potential downloaders to malicious software instead. And that's exactly what happened this Sunday.
Kaspersky denied the hack at first, but this is the kind of thing that's a little hard to cover up in 2010. Reports sprang up on their own forums and across the Internet, and Kaspersky eventually fessed up. They later offered an official statement:
photo by flickr user pvera
Following the second breach, Kaspersky's Roel Schouwenberg lamented, "This is not good for any company, and especially a company dealing with security." He's sure right about that. It's about as bad as things could get for an anti-malware provider... Right?
Well, almost. There is one possible scenario which is slightly worse: having your legitimate, well-known security site hacked so that it redirects potential downloaders to malicious software instead. And that's exactly what happened this Sunday.
Kaspersky denied the hack at first, but this is the kind of thing that's a little hard to cover up in 2010. Reports sprang up on their own forums and across the Internet, and Kaspersky eventually fessed up. They later offered an official statement:
Identifying the attacker and potential risk to your clients sounds like a good idea. You know what else might be a good idea? Securing your own servers so this doesn't happen again.Kaspersky Lab takes any attempt to compromise its security seriously. Our researchers are currently working on identifying any possible consequences of the attack for affected users, and are available to provide help to remove the fake antivirus software
photo by flickr user pvera













Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsbkj216Oct 20th 2010 10:41AM
MSE 4Lyfe
NyaROct 20th 2010 6:17PM
And what were you doing a year ago? Not having a "lyfe"?
Anyway, their server might have been insecure but that doesn't mean their personal software is.
JoshOct 20th 2010 11:42AM
I am glad I don't use Kaspersky! And the FACT that they DENIED people and lied to them at first, yeah... They will NEVER get my buisness. It would of been different if they had fessed up at first, rather than try to lie and tell people that they must have clicked a phishing link. When the "phishing" link was there download page!
serge morOct 20th 2010 12:02PM
Fail!
Martin ButtOct 20th 2010 2:46PM
Still the best anti-virus software out there. The quality of their virus detection algorithms is in no way reflective of the quality of their web security. It is almost definitely a different team of developers. A LOT of websites would suffer from similar exploits, the only reason hackers went for the Kaspersky site is the kudos that goes with hacking the website of the makers of the best desktop security package.
Mike ZachaczewskiOct 20th 2010 2:50PM
Same here, I thrashed Kaspersky... better use a different anti-virus. Breached a company known to provide security and tried to cover it up? Wth
ColorblindMonkOct 20th 2010 3:31PM
I'm glad I don't bother with security software. I mainly use common sense as my firewall.