this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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No problem, happy it helped.
Your summary is mostly accurate, but I think a better way to understand it would be like this:
Low level security software, by nature, is the ultimate attack vector, if compromised.
Assume that all countries that have both a domestic tech sector, and a well-resourced national security apparatus, have some version of on demand government initiated supply chain attack capabilities.
So it's not like I believe that all Kaspersky installs include a RAT piped directly to some GRU/FSB unit, just the ability for a malicious payload to be inserted - just as the NSA can do with American tech companies.
Not every risk can be mitigated, but some risks just shouldn't be taken.
The difference for me is: As for now, the US is not run by a fascist (yet). Injecting Malicious Software to bust terrorism/mafia/corruption... ok,.... Injecting Malicious Software to kill gays/opposition... Nope (and that is what I would expect the Russians to do)
I think you've confused my previous comments as some sort of moral equivocation, which they really weren't meant to be, but since you brought it up...
You may believe that America's intelligence agencies, on balance, are more moral than Russia, and you're probably right, but that is damning by faint praise.
Espionage is literally the act of committing crimes on behalf of a government. It's not altruistic and it's not used to fight the good fight of corruption, or the mafia. In fact, it's often done in conjunction with those actions and organizations, because that is what the job often requires.
Either way, Russia doesn't need Kaspersky to run its domestic surveillance network or it's myriad of police state apparatuses.
FYI oftentimes terrorism is blowback from actions taken by intelligence agencies years, or decades, prior. That is, the groups and ideologies they fund, train, and use, for their own ends, don't cease to exist just because they're no longer useful, or needed, by those agencies.
Yes you are 100% correct (or at least in line with my views... which I think should be correct)