The Department of Defense, NASA and the General Services Administration are set to publish a final rule Tuesday to prohibit defense and civilian agencies from using cybersecurity products developed or provided by Russia-based Kaspersky Lab, Nextgov reported Monday.
The new policy will replace an interim rule released in June 2018 and meet a provision from the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which seeks to address concerns that some executives at Kaspersky have links to Russian government officials.
The final rule also extends the prohibition to contractors and subcontractors providing support services to agencies, procurements below the acquisition threshold and commercial off-the-shelf offerings. Kaspersky said he believes the provisions in the final rule “were unconstitutional, were based on unsubstantiated allegations, and lacked any public evidence of wrongdoing by the company.â€
“Through its Global Transparency Initiative, Kaspersky continues to demonstrate its ongoing commitment to assuring the integrity and trustworthiness of its products and the protection of its users’ data,†the company added.
