SPUTNIKNEWS – March 18, 2018: Sputnik has discussed with Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity company, media reports about the exposure of a secret US counterterrorism program designed to spy on Internet activity.
According to The Times, Kaspersky Lab has warned users it’s detected a malicious code in the program “Slingshot,” which allows it to hack into routers and spy on Internet activity. The malware, which appears to have targeted Islamists, was reportedly discovered in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Sudan, Somali, Turkey and Yemen.
“Kaspersky Lab does not know the identity of the attackers behind the Slingshot APT or the identity of its victims. As a result of anonymized data, it’s impossible for us to tell who the specific targets are. All the company can state is that our users are protected against malicious software that can spy, steal or sabotage data from their computers,” Kaspersky Lab explained.
“Kaspersky Lab has always been very clear about our policy concerning the detection of malware: we detect and remediate all forms of malicious programs, regardless of origin or purpose. Furthermore, the company does not “whitelist” any malware samples, not even malware used for so called “legal surveillance.” One can easily imagine the situation in which such malware falls into the wrong hands and can be used to launch attacks against law enforcement or just regular users,” the company stated.
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