The Biden administration on Thursday announced plans to prohibit US sales of antivirus software produced by Kaspersky amid security concerns over the company’s alleged ties to the Russian government. 

Effective July 20, 2024, sellers and resellers will no longer be permitted to offer Kaspersky antivirus and endpoint security products in the US. While current US customers are not barred from using existing Kaspersky software, the company will be restricted from updating software on US machines after September 29, 2024.

The prohibition on software updates will prevent Kaspersky from refreshing malware signatures and providing security updates, significantly compromising the ability of Kaspersky’s antivirus to detect malware on machines and leaving customers vulnerable in the face of security vulnerabilities discovered in the software after that date.

Kaspersky has responded with a statement on X (formerly Twitter), saying it believes the decision was “based on the current geopolitical climate and theoretical concerns”.

The Commerce Department believes that Kaspersky has 270,000 corporate clients globally. The exact market share of Kaspersky in the US is unknown, but a government official stated that a “significant number” of US customers—including state and local governments, and critical infrastructure organizations—use the company’s software, forcing businesses to find alternative security solutions within just three months.

The Commerce Department will work with the departments of Homeland Security and Justice to “ensure a smooth transition”, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told WIRED in an interview. Raimondo also strongly encouraged Kaspersky customers to “immediately stop” using the software and “switch to an alternative”.

As a result of the decision, many organizations now find themselves unexpectedly in need of an endpoint security solution they can evaluate and deploy quickly. ThreatDown offers powerfully simple endpoint security solutions that take down threats, complexity, and costs.

Kaspersky users can see how our solutions compare to Kaspersky in our side by side ThreatDown vs Kaspersky comparison.