Kaspersky opening Transparency Center in Zurich

[WMGroomAK]

In the continuing saga of Kaspersky and the company trying to rebuild it's image after all of last year's fiasco, the company has announced that they will be opening a Transparency Center in Zurich, Switzerland.  This transparency center will supposedly house most of its customer data as well as it's software assembly line and build infrastructure.  Future plans include building more transparency centers in North America and Asia by 2020.

 

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/kaspersky-to-move-data-of-most-users-from-russia-to-switzerland/

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Kaspersky announced earlier today plans to move the user data of most of its customers to a "Transparency Center" in Switzerland, along with its "software assembly line."

The Transparency Center will be located in Zurich and will house servers that store data on Kaspersky customers across Europe, North America, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.

The transparency center will also host the company's "build infrastructure" that Kaspersky uses to assemble and manage its products. More precisely, the Zurich Transparency Center will host:

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◬  The source code of any publicly released product (including old versions),
◬  Threat detection rule databases,
◬  The source code of cloud services responsible for receiving and storing the data of customers based in Europe, North America, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Singapore,
◬  Software tools used for the creation of a product (the build scripts), databases, and cloud services,
◬  Secure software development documentation.

The move of the software assembly line is set to complete by the end of 2018, while moving servers tasked with storing user data will finish by the end of 2019.

Kaspersky said more transparency centers are set to open in North America and Asia by 2020, but the company is not yet ready to disclose more details.

...

For its part, the Russian antivirus vendor is doing all it can to keep its name clean. As part of this transparency center, Kaspersky said that a third-party organization will be allowed to independently review both processes —of how it stores user data and how it builds its software products.

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First, our build systems — or “assembly line” — which work on the compilation and creation of Kaspersky Lab products and threat detection rule updates, will now be located in Zurich. That way, our software will be compiled and signed in Switzerland under the supervision of a third-party organization before being distributed to customers.
[...]
The same goes for the data processed by Kaspersky Security Network: Storing it in Switzerland under the supervision of an independent organization means that any access to this data is meticulously logged — and the logs can be reviewed at any moment should any concerns arise.

Kaspersky has not yet announced the third-party responsible for supervising this process, but said it would be open for the creation of a "nonprofit organization to take on this responsibility."

I think that this is a great step by the company, especially if they allow for the independent review of data access as is implied, however I think that most of the damage is probably done and it will be a long and steep road to regain the companies footing (if it is even possible).  

[ItsMitch]

Kaspersky and Transparency don't work well

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

What? Why?

[Dabombinable]

34 minutes ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

What? Why?

The US government was doing its usual thing of "product+Russia=spying".

[laminutederire]

1 hour ago, SC2Mitch said:

Kaspersky and Transparency don't work well

Zurich and transparency don't as well so I'd guess it is  a fitting move!

[Ryujin2003]

2 hours ago, laminutederire said:

Zurich and transparency don't as well so I'd guess it is  a fitting move!

Why? Can you elaborate?

[captain_to_fire]

4 hours ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

What? Why?

The US DHS called for the uninstallation of Kaspersky Lab products in government owned computers and called for a ban in the use even though Kaspersky's office in Woburn, MA is still open. In turn, Best Buy and other brick and mortar stores in the US pulled out Kaspersky AV from their shelves. All because of the alleged suspicion that the Kremlin is using the antivirus for espionage. Allegedly, a group of anonymous Israeli hackers found that the FSB was using Kaspersky AV to spy on Americans. But the thing is, who are those anonymous Israeli hackers and to my knowledge, there was no publicly released smoking gun that unequivocally states that the Russian security company is aiding the Kremlin in espionage and weakens national security of countries. Kaspersky however denied all allegations stating that they have never helped nor will ever help any government in cyberespionage.

 

As for me, I'll just wait for the story to unfold further. It would be stupid to think that the Kremlin never asked Kaspersky to spy on someone but somehow it reminds me of Russia's VKontake and Telegram which is found by Pevel Durov.

Edited May 16, 2018 by captain_to_fire

[Canada EH]

1 hour ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Why? Can you elaborate?

Banking for one

[Ryujin2003]

4 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

Banking for one

I guess so, hadn't thought of that. I figured it was because of a neutrality thing.

[Canada EH]

1 hour ago, Ryujin2003 said:

I guess so, hadn't thought of that. I figured it was because of a neutrality thing.

Taxes for another

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, Ryujin2003 said:

I guess so, hadn't thought of that. I figured it was because of a neutrality thing.

I was also thinking about political neutrality considering that Switzerland remained neutral during WW1 and WW2.

[Myxzoid]

I heard that Dr.Disrespect will be heading the project.

[laminutederire]

7 hours ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Why? Can you elaborate?

The current wealth of the city is mainly built on finance. Banking is still hugely secretive in Switzerland for highly rich people, which is why those rich people go there in the first place, because of the fact the banks won't be transparent about whose money they keep.

 

There's that. Then there's the fact that Swiss germans seem to just can't be upfront on anything, so it's not lack of transparency per se, but it's definitely lack of communication which allows for lack of transparency of intentions that's for sure. (And it's a nightmare to live in, when you grew up in an upfront society)

[laminutederire]

7 hours ago, Canada EH said:

Taxes for another

That as well, that's why Google, IBM, Nvidia and so on have put their research facilities there. Lower taxes but close enough to recruit brains at European level. (Not because Swiss are better than everyone else, since in fact it's mostly French, Germans working there, with a decent chunk of Italian, Indian, Chinese and so on as well.)

[DaRk0]

Honestly, after all that US' crying last year, I like Kaspersky even more and I keep recommending it all over the place.

 

I guess if you are immune to US influence, that's a bad thing according to US gov. 

[mr moose]

It won't work.  That's the thing about conspiracy theories and people who like them.  Any effort you take to remain transparent just gets seen as proof you aren't.

[JoostinOnline]

When I read the title, an image of a headquarters-sized building made entirely of glass popped into my head, so you could see all the desks and people walking around.

[captain_to_fire]

8 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

When I read the title, an image of a headquarters-sized building made entirely of glass popped into my head, so you could see all the desks and people walking around.

Kaspersky’s Moscow HQ got carried out of Mother Russia into the alien mothership and was later dropped to Switzerland   

 

[Nicnac]

Why am I thinking of a very "transparent" and stylish glass front building in the Zurich inner city?