Kaspersky is declared a US national security threat

By Morf Morford

Tacoma Daily Index

It’s like a plot line from a low-budget, grainy, black and white Cold War movie thriller; a Russian company works its way into the deepest of the deep inner workings of American culture, economy and security and turns us against ourselves.

Fast forward from those paranoid years, if not decades, of fears of a communist in every closet to a far more likely reality of a Russian virus in every computer.

And television.

And hand-held device.

Except this is no Hollywood-driven, over-wrought Cold War propaganda fantasy – this is a battle taking place on, or behind, a small screen near you.

Oddly enough, federal agencies and contractors have been using a Russian-based cyber security and antivirus company for decades now.

Chess VS. Checkers

There’s an old saying that the Russians play chess while Americans play checkers.

Russians play the long game while we pick up pieces and imagine that with each opposing piece claimed, we are closer to victory.

We congratulate ourselves with each move and barely even notice that we are just clearing the field, preparing the way, for our own compromise.

In the digital age, what could be a better disguise for cyber intrusion, surveillance, and ultimate control, than a company with a speciality in, ahem, computer security?

It’s a classic plot-line, and, if you know your history, one of the oldest strategies of all.

And, one might be inclined to come to the conclusion that anyone taken in by one of the oldest and most obvious attempts at deception deserves to lose everything, but you might not be so encouraged when you find out that the eager victims are most businesses and government agencies – and many of us.