InfoSecBulletin Cybersecurity for mankind
Kaspersky has formally begun pulling back its offerings in the U.S., migrating existing users to UltraAV, effective September 19, 2024, ahead of its formal exit at the end of the month.
“Kaspersky antivirus customers received a software update facilitating the transition to UltraAV,” the company said in a post announcing the move on September 21.
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“This update ensured that users would not experience a gap in protection upon Kaspersky’s exit from the market.”
The Russian company, banned from selling its software in the U.S. over national security issues, stated it “worked closely” with UltraAV to uphold security and privacy standards after the transition.
Some users reported on Kaspersky’s forums and Reddit that their software was automatically deleted and replaced by UltraAV without warning after the update. UltraAV stated in an FAQ that all Kaspersky U.S. users with a valid email address received information about the transition process beginning September 5.
“I woke up and saw this new antivirus system on my desktop and I tried opening kaspersky but it was gone. So I had to look up what happened because I was literally having a mini heart attack that my desktop somehow had a virus which uninstalled kaspersky somehow,” one user said.
However, it appears that the notice reportedly failed to explicitly state that the switch of software in user systems would be an automatic process.
“I was using Kaspersky, didn’t realize they’d be shuffling us off to some rando [antivirus] in September,” one user wrote in a post on Reddit. “Nearly had a heart attack when I started my PC today and found a program I didn’t download.”
U.S. company UltraAV, part of Pango Group, offers various VPN apps, including UltraVPN, OVPN, and VPN360. It claims over 25 million active users and 650 million total users across its brands.
