Conservatives May Be Right – The Federal Government May Be Too Stupid to Exist

Why Are They Using Russian Security Software?

Buried somewhat in the news is that the GAO has decided that maybe, just maybe it is not a good idea for federal agencies to use Russian security software in their computer systems.

The U.S. government on Wednesday banned the use of a Russian brand of security software by federal agencies and gave them three months to remove the software amid concerns the company has ties to state-sponsored cyberespionage activities, according to U.S. officials.

Acting Homeland Security secretary Elaine Duke ordered that Kaspersky Lab software be barred from federal civilian government networks, giving agencies a timeline to get rid of it, according to several officials familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. Duke ordered the scrub on the grounds that the company has connections to the Russian government and its software poses a security risk.

Gee, you think? The question that comes to mind of course is what complete and total idiot thought it would be a be a good idea for software developed by Russians to have a role in U. S. Government computers in the first place. Did it never occur to anyone that this might be a bad idea? It would have occurred to a four year old. And yes it gets worse.

At least a half-dozen federal agencies run Kaspersky on their networks, the U.S. officials said, although there may be other networks where an agency’s chief information security officer — the official ultimately responsible for systems security — might not be aware it is being used.

Well of course an agency's chief information security officer might not know it is on his or her systems. Not like that would be part of the job of a chief information security officer. And finally, he nail in the coffin of incompetency.

The U.S. intelligence community has long assessed that Kaspersky has ties to the Russian government, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The company’s founder, Eugene Kaspersky, graduated from a KGB-supported cryptography school and had worked in Russian military intelligence.