[btilly]

The geopolitics of this one is fascinating.

Stuxnet was a combined Israeli/US attack on Iran's nuclear capability. Kaspersky is a Russian security company which was started with government support, and is believed to still have connections there. Russia and Iran are allies.

Now look at how it played out. The US and Israel attacked Iran. Kaspersky tracked it down and publicized it to the world. And now some combination of the US, Israel, or close allies launched a spying attack on Kaspersky. Which, for all we know, may actually be an important part of the Russian cybersecurity infrastructure.

For all that organizations like the NSA do wrong (like spying on all of us), this is the kind of thing that we actually wanted them doing when they were created.

[huhtenberg]

> a Russian company started with government support

From what I know this is simply not true. Got a source?

But I think your overall point holds. Kaspersky's 400 million user base includes a boatload of US/Western users, including enterprise and government clients. This simply cannot NOT be of some concern to respective countries, so it's perfectly logical that they would want to keep an eye on the situation.

[btilly]

I thought I had a source, but when I went looking I found tons of interesting connections (eg Kaspersky having gotten started in anti-virus while he was KGB) but no actual proof of involvement.

Given how Russian business works, though, it would seem likely that there is a connection.

But http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-19/cybersecur... is an article that gives more recent reason for why Kaspersky is a potentially interesting target for Western spies.

[AdBait]

>tons of interesting connections

Mind sharing those?

>he was KGB.

A claim unsupported by evidence.

>Given how Russian business works

"Given how I assume Russian business works based at most on anecdotal evidence." FTFY

Anyway I wouldn't bother to reply to your post, if you hadn't had used source that is full of shit, pardon my French. You can check out Kaspersky's blog for rebuttal of this article. Now if you insist on inductive reasoning I can offer you no evidence to the contrary, of course. And no, I don't work for Russian troll agency and am not Russian in any way. I doubt they would bother with ycombinator anyway. In no way this is attack on you of course, but I find these kind of posts severely annoying because of aforementioned reasons.

[avodonosov]

With your fantasy you can work in tabloids like Wired.

Russia and Iran are allies? US is going to use Iran against Russia to sell Iranian gas and oil to Europe and subdue Russian influence - that's why US decided to fix relations with Iran and come to a deal allowing to finish the sanctions. It's more like competitors than allies.

[btilly]

In recent history, Russia and Iran have indeed been allies. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Russia_relations for verification. And the US has repeatedly found itself on the opposite end of geopolitical conflicts with both countries. For a random example, both Iran and Russia have been supportive of Assad's government in Syria, while the US is opposed.

Of course interests shift over time. We are indeed doing things to improve relations with Iran. But that doesn't change the fact that in recent history we've been calling them part of "the axis of evil" and they have been calling us "the great Satan".

[avodonosov]

I've heard that Iran calls US "great Satan", and Russia "small Satan"

[btilly]

I've heard that Iran calls Israel "small Satan", not Russia.

A quick Google search finds lots of confirmation of that.

[avodonosov]

Wikipedia mentions both :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Satan

[btilly]

And so it does. I stand corrected. The USSR was indeed called the lesser Satan 35 years ago.

However the link that I provided to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Russia_relations says that Iran and the USSR had poor relations (due to the whole atheism thing), but Iran and Russia have had good relations since the USSR fell. Do you have a reference to Iran calling Russia any version of Satan in, say, the last 15 years?