Denmark Urges Local Companies Not To Use Russian Antivirus Program

UNSPLASH/Ed Hardie ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - The Cybersecurity Center (CFSC), which works under the Danish Defense Intelligence Service, urged public and local private companies not to use the antiviral program developed by Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.

"A good advice is to take a critical stance on whether Kaspersky should be the party that provides your antiviral products," said Deputy Director of Cyber Security Center Mark Fiedel as quoted by ANTARA from Anadolu, Monday, June 24.

Fiedel asked companies to be careful in installing Russian antiviral products, especially if the company operates in the field with unwanted things falling into Russia's hands.

The CFSC official believes it will be difficult for Russian companies to refuse if Russian intelligence agencies ask for security cooperation to access Danish documents. According to him, Denmark has a lot of information it believes would be very bad if foreign powers, including Russia, had access to it.

"An antiviral product that basically has access to our network and system, we are not interested in products from the Russian company," he said.

The CFSC statement comes as the United States announces a ban on the sale of antiviral software by the Russian Kaspersky Lab.

The ban will take effect on July 20, after which Kaspersky will no longer be able to market its products in the US cyber market. Meanwhile, Germany recommends that Russia's antiviral program be replaced with other options.