Kaspersky Lab founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky said he has accepted an invitation to testify before Congress later this month, regarding the security of his company’s products, Reuters reported. Kaspersky Lab says it has been caught in a proxy battle of broader tensions between the US and Russia. US intelligence agencies believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a multipronged digital influence operation last year in an attempt to help Donald Trump win the White House, a charge Moscow denies.
Kaspersky has been invited to testify on 27 September. US government and private-sector cyber experts have also been invited.
In an email to Reuters, Kaspersky said, “I appreciate and accept the invitation to testify before the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and if I can get an expedited visa, I look forward to publicly addressing the allegations about my company and its products.”
The invitation came a day after the Trump administration told US government agencies to remove Kaspersky Lab products from their networks, saying it was concerned the company was vulnerable to Russian government influence and that using its anti-virus software could jeopardize national security. The US Senate came a step closer to passing legislation that would codify the Trump administration’s ban on 14 September, voting to expand an amendment to a pending defense policy spending bill to prohibit both federal civilian and military agencies from using Kaspersky Lab products.
