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110-548: APT29 has been observed to utilize a malware platform dubbed "Duke" which Kaspersky Lab reported in 2013 as "MiniDuke", observed in 2008 against United States and Western European targets. Its initial development was reportedly in assembly language . After Kaspersky's public reporting, later versions added C/C++ components and additional anti-analysis features. and were dubbed "Cozyduke", "Cosmicduke", "SeaDuke" and "OnionDuke" Cozy Bear has been observed using an initial exploit or phishing email with malicious attachments to load

220-402: A dropper which installs a Duke variant as a persistent trojan onto the target computer. It then gathers and sends data to a command and control server based on its configuration and/or live operator commands. Cozy Bear has been observed updating and refining its malware to improve cryptography , interactive functionality, and anti-analysis (including virtual machine detection). CosmicDuke

330-641: A holding company in the United Kingdom . It was founded in 1997 by Eugene Kaspersky , Natalya Kaspersky and Alexey De-Monderik. Kaspersky Lab develops and sells antivirus , internet security , password management, endpoint security , and other cybersecurity products and services. Kaspersky expanded abroad from 2005 to 2010 and grew to $ 704 million in annual revenues by 2020, up 8% from 2016, though annual revenues were down 8% in North America due to US government security concerns. As of 2016,

440-590: A "Very Good" rating in Matousec's Firewall challenge, with a result of 85%. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0 has achieved a 6.5 result out of 8 in the Anti Malware Labs rootkit detection test. It has also achieved a 31 out of 33 detection of polymorphic viruses and a 97% result in the self-protection test. In 2007, Kaspersky Internet Security 7 received an award from the British magazine PC Pro and also won

550-540: A "critical" software patch to protect its software from the vulnerability. In 2016, Kaspersky uncovered the Poseidon Group, which would infiltrate corporations with malware using phishing emails, then get hired by the same company as a security firm to correct the problem. Once hired, Poseidon would install additional malware and backdoors. In June 2016 Kaspersky helped uncover a Russian hacking group, leading to 50 arrests. In 2019, Kaspersky uncovered Titanium,

660-535: A breach beginning the previous November of the email accounts of their senior leadership and other employees in the legal and cybersecurity teams using a "password spray", a form of brute-force attack . This hack conducted by Midnight Blizzard appears to have aimed to find what the company knew about the hacking operation. German technology company TeamViewer SE reported on June 28 2024 its corporate IT network had been compromised by Cozy Bear. It stated that user data and its TeamViewer remote desktop software product

770-625: A compromised third-party IT vendor. In 2021 Microsoft reported that Cozy Bear was leveraging the "FoggyWeb" tool to dump authentication tokens from compromised Active Directory instances. This was performed after they gained access to a machine on the target network and were able to obtain AD administrator credentials. On 24 August 2022, Microsoft reported the group has deployed a similar tool "MagicWeb" to bypass user authentication on affected Active Directory Federated Services servers. In January 2024, Microsoft reported having recently discovered and ended

880-567: A highly sophisticated threat actor that it called "The Equation Group". The group incorporated sophisticated spying software into the firmware of hard drives at banks, government agencies, nuclear researchers and military facilities, in countries that are frequent targets of US intelligence efforts. It is suspected to have been developed by the National Security Agency (NSA) and included many unique technical achievements to better avoid detection. That same day, Kaspersky announced

990-521: A larger mosaic that concentrates all the EPA's enemies against it at one time." According to the progressive media watchdog Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting , both left-wing and right-wing policy institutes are often quoted and rarely identified as such. The result is that think tank "experts" are sometimes depicted as neutral sources without any ideological predispositions when, in fact, they represent

1100-418: A nation-state. Later investigations implicated an internal compromise of software deployments of SolarWinds Orion IT management product to distribute a trojan that FireEye dubbed SUNBURST. SolarWinds later confirmed that it had been compromised by a foreign nation state. and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to issue an emergency directive that U.S. government agencies rebuild

1210-1147: A number of categories and presents its findings in the Global Go-To Think Tanks rating index. However, this method of the study and assessment of policy institutes has been criticized by researchers such as Enrique Mendizabal and Goran Buldioski, Director of the Think Tank Fund, assisted by the Open Society Institute . Think tanks may attempt to broadly inform the public by holding conferences to discuss issues which they may broadcast; encouraging scholars to give public lectures, testifying before committees of governmental bodies; publishing and widely distributing books, magazines, newsletters or journals; creating mailing lists to distribute new publications; and engaging in social media. Think tanks may privately influence policy by having their members accept bureaucratic positions, having members serve on political advisory boards, inviting policy-makers to events, allowing individuals to work at

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1320-537: A number of partnerships with various technology companies. The International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats in which Datuk Mohd Noor Amin acts as the chairman, announced the appointment of Harry Cheung – Managing Director of Kaspersky Lab, APAC – as the Goodwill Ambassador for Greater China. Kaspersky Lab was a long-term partner of Scuderia Ferrari and in December 2021, announced

1430-511: A number of think tanks that are in the form of governmental, non-governmental, and corporate organizations. In China a number of think tanks are sponsored by governmental agencies such as Development Research Center of the State Council , but still retain sufficient non-official status to be able to propose and debate ideas more freely. In January 2012, the first non-official think tank in mainland China, South Non-Governmental Think-Tank,

1540-722: A particular perspective. In the United States, think tank publications on education are subjected to expert review by the National Education Policy Center 's "Think Twice" think tank review project. A 2014 New York Times report asserted that foreign governments buy influence at many United States think tanks. According to the article: "More than a dozen prominent Washington research groups have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect

1650-578: A partnership extension with the Formula One team, and also became the team's esports partner. However, in March 2022 the deal was paused as a joint decision taken by the two companies due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . According to PC Magazine , Kaspersky AntiVirus and competitor Bitdefender are both consistently ranked at the top in independent competitive tests. PC Magazine's own malware and phishing tests had similar results and praised

1760-592: A pejorative context to the human brain itself when commenting on an individual's failings (in the sense that something was wrong with that person's "think tank"). Around 1958, the first organization to be regularly described in published writings as "the Think Tank" (note the title case and the use of the definite article ) was the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences . However,

1870-598: A phenomenon in the United Kingdom in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with most of the rest being established in other English-speaking countries. Prior to 1945, they tended to focus on the economic issues associated with industrialization and urbanization. During the Cold War , many more American and other Western think tanks were established, which often guided government Cold War policy. Since 1991, more think tanks have been established in non-Western parts of

1980-470: A place in its "A List". Kaspersky has passed most of the Virus Bulletin comparative tests since August 2003. In 2005, according to PC World magazine, Kaspersky anti-virus software provided the fastest updates for new virus and security threats in the industry. In PC World magazine's March 2010 comparison of consumer security suites, Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 scored 4.5/5 stars, and

2090-590: A range of economic and governance issues confronting Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa . It has also been involved in bringing political parties together to engage in dialogue. In particular it has organised Presidential debates every election year since the Ghanaian presidential election, 1996 . Notable think tanks in Ghana include: Afghanistan has a number of think tanks that are in the form of governmental, non-governmental, and corporate organizations. Bangladesh has

2200-584: A target's user account via a malicious Security Assertion Markup Language definition. On 20 December 2020 the U.S. Government reported that Cozy Bear was responsible for compromising the networks of civilian agencies Department of Commerce and Department of the Treasury . In July 2021, Cozy Bear breached systems of the Republican National Committee . Officials said they believed the attack to have been conducted through Synnex ,

2310-499: A veritable proliferation of "think tanks" around the world that began during the 1980s as a result of globalization, the end of the Cold War , and the emergence of transnational problems. Two-thirds of all the think tanks that exist today were established after 1970 and more than half were established since 1980. The effect of globalisation on the proliferation of think tanks is most evident in regions such as Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and parts of Southeast Asia, where there

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2420-521: A very advanced and insidious backdoor malware APT , developed by PLATINUM , a cybercrime collective. Kaspersky Lab reported the malware on November 8, 2019. Since 2015, Kaspersky was alleged to have close ties to the Russian government by various Western media outlets and the US government. In October 2017, reports alleged that hackers working for the Russian government stole confidential data from

2530-625: Is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy , political strategy , economics , military , technology , and culture . Most think tanks are non-governmental organizations , but some are semi-autonomous agencies within a government, and some are associated with particular political parties, businesses, or the military. Think tanks are often funded by individual donations, with many also accepting government grants. Think tanks publish articles and studies, and sometimes draft legislation on particular matters of policy or society. This information

2640-590: Is a frequent target, including the 2016 Clinton campaign , political parties ( DNC , RNC) , various executive agencies, the State Department and the White House . Cozy Car malware was discovered on a Washington, D.C. based private research institute in March 2014. Using compromised accounts at that organization, they sent phishing emails to other US government targets leveraging a malicious Flash file purporting to show "funny office monkeys". By July

2750-608: Is a global think tank that works on issues such as Water Diplomacy , Peace and Conflict and Foresight (futures studies) . Think tanks with a development focus include those like the National Centre for Cold-chain Development ('NCCD'), which serve to bring an inclusive policy change by supporting the Planning Commission and related government bodies with industry-specific inputs – in this case, set up at

2860-428: Is called Kaspersky Small Office Security (KSOS). Within the suite are products specifically for virtualization security, mobile security, and fraud protection among others. Kaspersky also develops a free tool that helps businesses gain access to Windows devices that are infected by ransomware. Threatpost is a discontinued computer security blog which was funded by Kaspersky Lab. According to Eugene Kaspersky , it

2970-713: Is collaboration between policy institutes in different countries. For instance, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace operates offices in Washington, D.C. , Beijing , Beirut , Brussels and formerly in Moscow , where it was closed in April 2022. The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) at the University of Pennsylvania , led by James McGann , annually rates policy institutes worldwide in

3080-452: Is done in public think tanks. There is a strong emphasis on the knowledge-based economy and, according to one respondent, think tank research is generally considered high quality. Japan has over 100 think tanks, most of which cover not only policy research but also economy, technology and so on. Some are government related, but most of the think tanks are sponsored by the private sector. Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP) at

3190-603: Is similar to QWERTY, a malware program discovered the next year. Regin was used to take remote control of a computer and is believed to have originated from the Five Eyes alliance. That same month Kaspersky reported on the Darkhotel attack, which targeted users of wireless networks at hotels in Asia. It asked users to update their software, and then download malware that gave up their passwords. In 2015, Kaspersky identified

3300-452: Is then used by governments, businesses, media organizations, social movements or other interest groups. Think tanks range from those associated with highly academic or scholarly activities to those that are overtly ideological and pushing for particular policies, with a wide range among them in terms of the quality of their research. Later generations of think tanks have tended to be more ideologically oriented. Modern think tanks began as

3410-674: Is to maintain analytical and research support for the President of Kazakhstan. Most Malaysian think tanks are related either to the government or a political party. Historically they focused on defense, politics and policy. However, in recent years, think tanks that focus on international trade, economics, and social sciences have also been founded. Notable think tanks in Malaysia include: Pakistan's think tanks mainly revolve around social policy, internal politics, foreign security issues, and regional geo-politics. Most of these are centered on

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3520-549: The Académie des frères Dupuy , created in Paris around 1620 by the brothers Pierre and Jacques Dupuy and also known after 1635 as the cabinet des frères Dupuy . The Club de l'Entresol , active in Paris between 1723 and 1731, was another prominent example of an early independent think tank focusing on public policy and current affairs, especially economics and foreign affairs. Several major current think tanks were founded in

3630-673: The Equation Group . According to Wired , "many of them [were] seemingly launched by the US and its UK and Israeli allies. Kaspersky is especially well-known for its work uncovering Stuxnet, Careto , and Flame." In 2010, Kaspersky Lab worked with Microsoft to counteract the Stuxnet worm, which had infected 14 industrial locations in Iran using four zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. According to IEEE Spectrum,

3740-683: The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 , which included a ban on Kaspersky software on federal civilian and military computers. In response, Kaspersky began a "global transparency initiative", which included relocating core infrastructure and data for customers in North America and Europe from Russia to Switzerland, and opening "transparency centres" in multiple countries to allow state agencies, government experts and regulators to review its source code and other company practices. In 2022, after

3850-825: The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) reported that Cozy Bear had launched spear phishing campaigns against at least nine individuals across the Ministry of Defence , Ministry of Foreign Affairs , and the Labour Party in January 2017. Other targets included the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority and members of the Norwegian Police Security Service , including section chief Arne Christian Haugstøyl. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg called

3960-588: The Red October malware, which had been used for widespread cyber-espionage for five years. It targeted political targets like embassies, nuclear sites, mostly in Europe, Switzerland and North America. The malware was likely written by Russian-speaking hackers and the exploits by Chinese hackers. That June, Kaspersky discovered NetTraveler, which it said was obtaining data on emerging technology from government targets and oil companies. Kaspersky did not identify who

4070-505: The Russian invasion of Ukraine , the US government warned American businesses that the risk of using Kaspersky software had increased and the FCC added Kaspersky to its list of threats to US national security. Kaspersky responded to the FCC's move in a press release on its website, saying that the agency's decision was "made on political grounds" in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and that

4180-481: The 'HAMMERTOSS' trojan in 2015 to evade detection by relaying commands over covert channels on Twitter and GitHub . Cozy Bear has been observed targeting and compromising organizations and foreign governments worldwide (including Russian opposition countries such as NATO and Five Eyes ) and the commercial sector (notably financial, manufacturing, energy and telecom). Targeting also included South America, and Asia (notably China and South Korea ). The United States

4290-538: The 1940s, most think tanks were known only by the name of the institution. During the Second World War, think tanks were often referred to as "brain boxes". Before the 1950s, the phrase "think tank" did not refer to organizations. From its first appearances in the 1890s up to the 1950s, the phrase was most commonly used in American English to colloquially refer to the braincase or especially in

4400-702: The 1970s, the phrase became more specifically defined in terms of RAND and others. During the 1980s and 1990s, the phrase evolved again to arrive at its broader contemporary meaning of an independent public policy research institute. For most of the 20th century, such institutes were found primarily in the United States, along with much smaller numbers in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe. Although think tanks had also existed in Japan for some time, they generally lacked independence, having close associations with government ministries or corporations. There has been

4510-573: The 19th century. The Royal United Services Institute was founded in 1831 in London , and the Fabian Society in 1884. The oldest United States –based think tank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , was founded in Washington, D.C. , in 1910 by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie . Carnegie charged trustees to use the fund to "hasten the abolition of international war, the foulest blot upon our civilization." The Brookings Institution

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4620-509: The 800s when emperors and kings began arguing with the Catholic Church about taxes. A tradition of hiring teams of independent lawyers to advise monarchs about their financial and political prerogatives against the church spans from Charlemagne all the way to the 17th century, when the kings of France were still arguing about whether they had the right to appoint bishops and receive a cut of their income." Soll cites as an early example

4730-603: The Center does not count itself as and is not perceived to be a think tank in the contemporary sense. During the 1960s, the phrase "think tank" was attached more broadly to meetings of experts, electronic computers , and independent military planning organizations. The prototype and most prominent example of the third category was the RAND Corporation , which was founded in 1946 as an offshoot of Douglas Aircraft and became an independent corporation in 1948. In

4840-500: The DNC for a few weeks while Cozy Bear had done so for over a year. After the 2016 United States presidential election , Cozy Bear was linked to spear phishing campaigns against multiple U.S.-based think tanks and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) related to national security, defense, international affairs, public policy, and European and Asian studies. Some emails were sent from compromised Harvard accounts. On 3 February 2017,

4950-636: The Foundation of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan was created in 2003. IWEP activities aimed at research problems of the world economy, international relations, geopolitics, security, integration and Eurasia, as well as the study of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and its contribution to the establishment and strengthening of Kazakhstan as an independent state,

5060-846: The Interior and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk announced that the March 2017 Dutch general election would be counted by hand . In 2019 ESET reported that three malware variants had been attributed to Cozy Bear: PolyglotDuke, RegDuke and FatDuke. The malware had reportedly improved its anti-analysis methods and had been observed being used in intrusion campaigns dubbed "Operation Ghost". in July 2020 Five Eyes intelligence agencies NSA , NCSC and CSE reported that Cozy Bear had attempted to obtain COVID-19 vaccine data via intrusion campaigns. On 8 December 2020, U.S. cybersecurity firm FireEye disclosed that their internal tools had been stolen by

5170-658: The Netherlands, and the United States. On 20 June 2024, the US announced that it would prohibit Kaspersky from selling or distributing updates to its software to US customers which caused the cybersecurity company to leave the US market the following month. The first version of Kaspersky Lab's antivirus software was developed by Eugene Kaspersky in 1989 in response to the Cascade Virus . Early versions had just 40 virus definitions and were mostly distributed to friends and family members. Kaspersky continued developing

5280-494: The PC for suspicious program behavior, and warns users about potentially dangerous websites. The Internet Security software adds privacy features, parental controls, anti-phishing tools. Total Security adds parental controls, adult website filters, diagnostic tools, a Password Manager application, and other features. Kaspersky's software is available for Macs, PCs, Android, iOS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Symbian. For businesses,

5390-595: The Philippines could be generally categorized in terms of their linkages with the national government. Several were set up by the Philippine government for the specific purpose of providing research input into the policy-making process. Sri Lanka has a number of think tanks that are in the form of governmental, non-governmental and corporate organizations. There are several think tanks in Singapore that advise

5500-717: The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)—ties which the company has actively denied. In 2017, it was alleged that hackers working for the Russian government stole confidential data from the home computer of a US National Security Agency contractor via Kaspersky antivirus software. In response to these and other allegations , Kaspersky began to solicit independent reviews and verification of its source code , and relocated core infrastructure and customer data from Russia to Switzerland . Multiple countries have banned or restricted their government agencies from using Kaspersky products, including Lithuania,

5610-410: The US market. On September 25, the company abruptly replaced its software on US users' computers with UltraAV software developed by US cybersecurity firm Pango , angering some users. Kaspersky Lab develops and markets antivirus, internet security, password management, endpoint security, and other cybersecurity products and services. It is the fourth or fifth largest endpoint security vendor and

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5720-508: The US, Russia and Ukraine using an SMS message that baited users into installing a Trojan. In 2016, Kaspersky discovered a zero day vulnerability in Microsoft Silverlight . Kaspersky identified a string of code often used by exploits created by the suspected author. It then used YARA rules on its network of Kaspersky software users to find that string of code and uncover the rest of the exploit. Afterwards, Microsoft issued

5830-694: The Windows XP version of Kaspersky AV an "Advanced+" rating (its highest) in both its February 2008 on-demand detection test (with the fourth highest detection rate among 16 products tested). However, in the Retrospective/Proactive Test May 2008, Kaspersky received the "Standard" rating, detecting 21% of new malware with 1-month old signatures and receiving a substantial amount of false positives. The firewall included in Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 got

5940-455: The accusations to unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. Reuters followed up by publishing leaked emails allegedly from Kaspersky alluding to "falsies" and "rubbing out" foreign competitors; Kaspersky Lab stated the emails "may not be legitimate and were obtained from anonymous sources that have a hidden agenda". In 2016, Kaspersky executive Ruslan Stoyanov was arrested by Russian authorities on charges predating his work at Kaspersky. In 2019, he

6050-538: The actions of think tanks and potentially bypass the political process, analysing the social background and values of those who work in think tanks. Pautz criticizes this viewpoint because there is in practice a variety of viewpoints in think tanks and argues it dismisses the influence that ideas can have. In some cases, corporate interests, military interests and political groups have found it useful to create policy institutes, advocacy organizations, and think tanks. For example, The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition

6160-544: The acts "a serious attack on our democratic institutions." Reported in February 2017, both Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear had been attempting to compromise into Dutch ministries since 2016. Targets included the Ministry of General Affairs . Then-head of the Dutch intelligence service AIVD Rob Bertholee , stated on EenVandaag television that the Russian intrusion had targeted government documents. In response, Dutch Minister of

6270-493: The affected software from trusted sources. It also attributed the intrusion campaign to the Russian SVR. Approximately 18,000 SolarWinds clients were vulnerable to the compromised Orion software. The Washington Post cited anonymous sources that attributed Cozy Bear as the perpetrator. According to Microsoft, the hackers compromised Solarwinds code signing certificates and deployed a backdoor that allowed impersonation of

6380-458: The behest of the government to direct cold chain development. Some think tanks have a fixed set of focus areas and they work towards finding out policy solutions to social problems in the respective areas. Initiatives such as National e-Governance Plan (to automate administrative processes) and National Knowledge Network (NKN) (for data and resource sharing amongst education and research institutions), if implemented properly, should help improve

6490-773: The capital, Islamabad . One such think tank is the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), which focuses on policy advocacy and research particularly in the area of environment and social development. Another policy research institute based in Islamabad is the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) which works in the fields of education, health, disaster risk reduction, governance , conflict and stabilization. Since 2007 - 2008, I-SAPS has been analyzing public expenditure of federal and provincial governments. Think tanks in

6600-517: The circumstances "strongly suggest" the worm was developed by the United States and Israel to damage centrifuges in Iran's nuclear-enrichment program. It was the first discovery of a major government-sponsored cyber-attack. In May 2012, Kaspersky Lab identified the malware Flame , which a researcher described as potentially "the most sophisticated cyber weapon yet unleashed". According to

6710-416: The company "remains ready to cooperate with US government agencies to address the FCC's and any other regulatory agency's concerns". In 2024, hacked email accounts showed that Kaspersky Lab has allegedly helped the Russian government develop software for its spy drones. In April 2024, it was reported that the US Department of Commerce was considering a general ban on Kaspersky from offering its products in

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6820-441: The company had 65 employees and sales in more than 40 countries. Kaspersky opened new offices in South East Asia and the Middle East in 2008 and in South Africa in 2009. It also expanded in India, the Middle East and Africa in 2010. In 2009, retail sales of Kaspersky Lab's antivirus products reached almost 4.5 million copies per year. In 2011, General Atlantic bought a 20 percent share of Kaspersky Lab for $ 200 million, with

6930-465: The company introduced modified files into the VirusTotal antivirus database to trick software from Kaspersky competitors into triggering false positives in virus and malware scans. A possible motive is that Eugene Kaspersky allegedly was furious at competitors perceived to be "unfairly" free-riding on Kaspersky's malware discoveries via the open-source VirusTotal database. The company denied the allegations. On his personal blog, Eugene Kaspersky compared

7040-483: The company markets the Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business suite. It includes a centralized user interface and management application called the Kaspersky Security Center. The cybersecurity software itself is called the Kaspersky Security Network. The Kaspersky Administration KitSecurity Center manages configuration, installation and remote use. The business suite also has quarantine, reporting, and other features. Its software product for businesses with 25 staff or less

7150-422: The construction of a discourse coalition with a common aim, citing the example of deregulation of trucking, airlines, and telecommunications in the 1970s. Plejwe argues that this deregulation represented a discourse coalition between the Ford Motor Company , FedEx , neo-liberal economists, the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute . Elite theory considers how an "elite" influence

7260-543: The controversial anti-piracy bill, but Kaspersky Lab did not support it stating, "we believe that such measures will be used contrary to the modern advances in technology and the needs of consumers," and to show their disapproval, announced their intent to leave on December 5, 2011. By 2013, the company had an unaudited $ 667 million in annual revenues. In 2014, Kaspersky Lab signed a distribution deal with Ingram Micro, which significantly expanded its reseller program. In August 2015, two former Kaspersky employees alleged that

7370-436: The country. On 20 June 2024, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced that Kaspersky Labs would be prohibited from selling or providing updates for its software to customers in the United States. The sales ban takes effect on 20 July 2024 and software updates to customers must end on 29 September 2024. The sanction is performed under executive orders issued by Trump and current president Joe Biden , which seek to protect

7480-411: The development of international cooperation and the promotion of peace and stability. The Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the RK (KazISS) was established by the Decree of the President of RK on 16 June 1993. Since its foundation the main mission of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as a national think tank,

7590-477: The discovery of a hacker group it called Carbanak , which was targeting banks and moving millions of dollars into fake accounts. Carbanak was discovered when one bank asked Kaspersky to investigate suspicious behavior from its ATMs. A similar malware using some of the same techniques as Carbanak was discovered in 2016 and dubbed Carbanak 2.0. In June 2015, Kaspersky reported that its own network had been infiltrated by government-sponsored malware. Evidence suggested

7700-470: The discovery of sophisticated espionage platforms conducted by nations, such as Equation Group and the Stuxnet worm. Various covert government-sponsored [by which government] cyber-espionage efforts were uncovered through their research. Kaspersky also publishes the annual Global IT Security Risks Survey. As of 2014, Kaspersky's research hubs analyze more than 350,000 malware samples per day. The US government has alleged that Kaspersky has engaged with

7810-480: The donors' priorities." Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah , set up various state-supported think tanks in the 1960s. By the 1990s, a variety of policy research centers sprang up in Africa set up by academics who sought to influence public policy in Ghana. One such think tank was The Institute of Economic Affairs, Ghana , which was founded in 1989 when the country was ruled by the Provisional National Defence Council . The IEA undertakes and publishes research on

7920-537: The expectation of helping the company go public. A few months later, the decision was made to keep the firm private and Kaspersky re-purchased the shares from General Atlantic. This was followed by numerous executive departures in 2011 and 2014 regarding disputes over going public and over Eugene Kaspersky's management style. On January 1, 2012, Kaspersky Lab officially left the Business Software Alliance (BSA) over SOPA . The BSA had supported

8030-437: The experts they fund for future government jobs, while others want to push specific areas of research or education." McGann distinguishes think tanks based on independence, source of funding and affiliation, grouping think tanks into autonomous and independent, quasi-independent, government affiliated, quasi-governmental, university affiliated, political-party affiliated or corporate. A new trend, resulting from globalization,

8140-674: The field of corporate products from AV-TEST Institute. Later in 2013, Kaspersky earned the product of the year award from AV-Comparatives and the highest score among Enterprise solutions in a Dennis Technology Labs report. Kaspersky has also received certification of its products through the OESIS OK Certification Program, which verifies that the applications are interoperable with third-party technology solutions like NAC and SSL VPN products from Cisco Systems , Juniper Networks , F5 Networks , and others. Kaspersky Lab's Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT)

8250-622: The group had compromised multiple government networks. In the summer of 2014, the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) infiltrated the camera network used by Cozy Bear's physical office. This footage confirmed targeting of the US Democratic Party, State Department and White House and may have been used in the FBI investigation into 2016 Russian election interference . In August 2015 Cozy Bear

8360-607: The home computer of an US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor via Kaspersky antivirus software. Kaspersky denied the allegations, reporting that the software had detected Equation Group malware samples which it uploaded to its servers for analysis in its normal course of operation. In September 2017, the Department of Homeland Security issued an order prohibiting the use and purchase of Kaspersky software by US federal agencies, and required their removal from systems within 90 days. In December, President Donald Trump signed

8470-565: The malware Mask, which infected 380 organizations in 31 countries. Many organizations that were affected were in Morocco. Some of the files were in Spanish and the group is believed to be a state conducting espionage, but Kaspersky did not speculate on which country may have developed it. In November 2014, Symantec and Kaspersky authored papers that contained the first disclosure of malicious software named Regin . According to Kaspersky, Regin

8580-599: The malware was created by the same developers as Duqu and Stuxnet , in order to get intelligence that would help them better avoid detection by Kaspersky in the future. Kaspersky called it Duqu 2.0. The malicious software resided in memory to avoid detection. The hack was believed to have been done by the same group that did Duqu in 2011. It used exploits in Microsoft installer files. In June 2015, Kaspersky Lab and Citizen Lab both independently discovered software developed by Hacking Team and used by 60 governments around

8690-532: The more established think tanks, created during the Cold War , are focused on international affairs, security studies, and foreign policy. Think tanks vary by ideological perspectives, sources of funding, topical emphasis and prospective consumers. Funding may also represent who or what the institution wants to influence; in the United States, for example, "Some donors want to influence votes in Congress or shape public opinion, others want to position themselves or

8800-608: The personal data of US citizens from nations designated as "foreign adversaries" to the United States . In July 2024, Kaspersky said it would close its United States division and lay off all employees ahead of the July 20 ban. From July 17, the company offered US customers six months of free updates for the Kaspersky security suites, password manager, parental controls software, and VPN. However, it acknowledged that functionality would become limited after September 29. Think tank A think tank , or public policy institute,

8910-482: The phones of diplomats from China, Israel, NATO members, and Syria. Kaspersky Lab said it does not believe itself to be the main target and that it had not shared its own findings about the attack with Russian authorities until the FSB announcement. On 20 June 2024, after the US announced that it would prohibit Kaspersky from selling or distributing updates to its software to US customers, the company announced it would leave

9020-577: The program "Flame" after the name of one of its modules. Flame was an earlier variant of Stuxnet. Kaspersky never verified the source of the software, but it is suspected to have been developed by the National Security Agency (NSA) to transmit keystrokes, Skype calls and other data. Kaspersky created algorithms to find similar malware and found Gauss that July, which collected and transmitted data from devices infected by bluetooth or USB drives. In January 2013, Kaspersky discovered

9130-761: The quality of work done by think tanks. Some notable think tanks in India include: Over 50 think tanks have emerged in Iraq, particularly in the Kurdistan Region. Iraq's leading think tank is the Middle East Research Institute (MERI), based in Erbil. MERI is an independent non-governmental policy research organization, established in 2014 and publishes in English, Kurdish, and Arabic. It

9240-630: The researchers in Kaspersky Lab, the malware had infected an estimated 1,000 to 5,000 machines worldwide when asked by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union to investigate reports of a virus affecting Iranian Oil Ministry computers. As Kaspersky Lab investigated, they discovered an MD5 hash and filename that appeared only on customer machines from Middle Eastern nations. After discovering more pieces, researchers dubbed

9350-481: The software at KAMI, resulting in the AntiViral Toolkit Pro (AVP) product released in 1992. It was popularized in 1994 after a competitive analysis by Hamburg University gave his software first place. In 1997, Eugene Kaspersky, his wife Natalya Kaspersky, and Alexey De-Monderik left KAMI to form Kaspersky Lab, and to continue developing the antivirus product, then called AVP. The product

9460-719: The software has about 400 million users and has the largest market-share of cybersecurity software vendors in Europe . Kaspersky Lab ranks fourth in the global ranking of antivirus vendors by revenue. It was the first Russian company to be included into the rating of the world's leading software companies, called the Software Top 100 (79th on the list, as of June 29, 2012). Kaspersky Lab is ranked 4th in Endpoint Security segment according to IDC data for 2010. The Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) has led

9570-633: The software's "bonus security tools". Under "Cons" the magazine said it took longer than expected to complete a scan. The same magazine said the Kaspersky Total Security product had an "impressive feature list" and praised the extra features in the Total Security product, like password management, encryption and parental controls. PC Magazine said the product had scored highly in lab tests for antivirus, antiphishing and other features. It had "so-so" scores in anti-malware tests and

9680-486: The software's features, but said it lacked policy management and deployment options. Kaspersky's parental controls software was reviewed by PC Magazine . The reviewer said it was "well-rounded, very affordable parental control and monitoring". It praised the software's content filtering, child profiles, social media monitoring and other features, but criticized that some features were only available on iOS or Android. The anti-virus software testing group AV-Comparatives gave

9790-511: The think tank; employing former policy-makers; or preparing studies for policy makers. The role of think tanks has been conceptualized through the lens of social theory. Plehwe argues that think tanks function knowledge actors within a network of relationships with other knowledge actors. Such relationships including citing academics in publications or employing them on advisory boards, as well as relationships with media, political groups and corporate funders. They argue that these links allow for

9900-530: The third largest consumer IT security software company. It is the sixth largest overall IT security company. Its revenues are about 15 percent from Russian companies domestically, one-third from European organizations and one-fourth from US organizations. The software has about 400 million users in all. Kaspersky's consumer software include the Antivirus, Internet Security and Total Security products. The Antivirus software includes malware protection, monitors

10010-638: The transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997, more think tanks were established by various groups of intellectuals and professionals. They have various missions and objectives including promoting civic education; undertaking research on economic, social and political policies; and promoting "public understanding of and participation in the political, economic, and social development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ". Think tanks in Hong Kong include: India has

10120-411: The world to covertly record data from the mobile phones of their citizens. The software gave police enforcement a "menu of features" to access emails, text messages, keystrokes, call history and other data. Kaspersky also identified 37,000 attacks against banking companies that used modifications of the malware called Asacub and took control of Android devices. Asacub targeted mostly banking customers in

10230-547: The world's second-largest number of think tanks . Most are based in New Delhi, and a few are government-sponsored. There are few think tanks that promote environmentally responsible and climate resilient ideas like Centre for Science and Environment , Centre for Policy Research and World Resources Institute . There are other prominent think tanks like Observer Research Foundation , Tillotoma Foundation and Centre for Civil Society . In Mumbai, Strategic Foresight Group

10340-413: The world. More than half of all think tanks that exist today were established after 1980. As of 2023, there are more than 11,000 think tanks around the world. According to historian Jacob Soll , while the term "think tank" is modern, with its origin "traced to the humanist academies and scholarly networks of the 16th and 17th centuries," Soll writes that, "in Europe, the origins of think tanks go back to

10450-472: Was "advanced for the time". For example, it was the first software to monitor viruses in an isolated quarantine. The company's revenue grew 280 percent from 1998 to 2000, with about 60 percent of its revenue coming from foreign sales. Natalya worked to broker deals abroad and localize the software. It opened offices in the UK, Poland, Holland and China. It later expanded to Germany, France, the US and Japan. By 2000,

10560-547: Was a concerted effort by other countries to assist in the creation of independent public policy research organizations. A survey performed by the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program underscores the significance of this effort and documents the fact that most of the think tanks in these regions have been established since 1992. As of 2014 , there were more than 11,000 of these institutions worldwide. Many of

10670-452: Was behind it, but it was similar to other cyber-espionage coming from Beijing, China. Later that same year, Kaspersky discovered a hacker group it called Icefog after investigating a cybersecurity attack on a Japanese television company. Kaspersky said the hacker group, possibly from China, was unique in that they targeted specific files they seemed to know about before planting malware to extract them. In February 2014, Kaspersky identified

10780-505: Was convicted of treason. In June 2023, Kaspersky Lab said many of its senior staff and managers were hit by an ongoing attack that it first suspected in early 2023 and has compromised thousands of iPhones . The oldest traces of infection date back to 2019. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) separately accused the US National Security Agency and company Apple of being behind the attack and infiltrating

10890-534: Was established in 2008. It investigates cybersecurity threats and other work by malware operations. IT security companies are often evaluated by their ability to uncover previously unknown viruses and vulnerabilities. Kaspersky's reputation for investigating cyber-security threats has been influential in gaining sales and prestige. Beginning around 2010, Kaspersky exposed a series of government-sponsored [which government?] cyber-espionage and sabotage efforts. These include Stuxnet , Duqu , Flame , Gauss , Regin and

11000-626: Was established in the Guangdong province. In 2009 the China Center for International Economic Exchanges was founded. In Hong Kong, early think tanks established in the late 1980s and early 1990s focused on political development, including the first direct Legislative Council members election in 1991 and the political framework of " One Country, Two Systems ", manifested in the Sino-British Joint Declaration . After

11110-578: Was formed in the mid-1990s to dispute research finding an association between second-hand smoke and cancer . Military contractors may spend a portion of their tender on funding pro-war think tanks. According to an internal memorandum from Philip Morris Companies referring to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "The credibility of the EPA is defeatable, but not on the basis of ETS [ environmental tobacco smoke ] alone,... It must be part of

11220-456: Was founded shortly thereafter in 1916 by Robert S. Brookings and was conceived as a bipartisan "research center modeled on academic institutions and focused on addressing the questions of the federal government." In the early 1920s, fascist and other far-right think tanks appeared in the Netherlands . After 1945, the number of policy institutes increased, with many small new ones forming to express various issues and policy agendas. Until

11330-488: Was independent of Kaspersky. It was launched in 2009. After August 2022, no new articles have been published on the site. The Kaspersky Anti-Virus engine also powers products or solutions by other security vendors, such as Check Point , Bluecoat , Juniper Networks , Microsoft Forefront , Netintelligence, Clearswift , FrontBridge , Netasq , Wedge Networks, and others. Altogether, more than 120 companies are licensing technology from Kaspersky Lab. Kaspersky Lab also has

11440-697: Was linked to a spear phishing campaign against the Pentagon , which the resulting investigation shut down the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff unclassified email system. Cozy Bear and fellow Russian hacking group Fancy Bear (likely GRU ) were identified as perpetuating the Democratic National Committee intrusion . While the two groups were both present in the DNC's servers at the same time, they appeared to operate independently. Further confirming their independent operations, computer forensics determined that Fancy Bear had only compromised

11550-631: Was listed in the global ranking by the United States's Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania as 46th in the Middle East. There are many think tank teams in Israel, including: In South Korea , think tanks are prolific and influential and are a government go-to. Think tanks are prolific in the Korean landscape. Many policy research organisations in Korea focus on economoy and most research

11660-466: Was not able to catch all spam. Kaspersky's 2013 Endpoint Security for Windows product was the top-ranked enterprise antivirus software in a competitive test by Dennis Technology Labs, followed by Symantec Endpoint Protection. AV-Comparatives awarded Kaspersky "Product of the Year" for 2015, based on the number of high scores it received throughout the year on a wide range of tests. PC Magazine praised

11770-523: Was observed in 2013 as an updated version of MiniDuke with a more flexible plugin framework. In 2014 OnionDuke leveraged the Tor network to conceal its command and control traffic and was distributed by infecting binary executables on the fly if they were transmitted unencrypted through a Russia-based Tor exit node. "SeaDuke" appears to be a specialized trojan used in conjunction with other tools to compromise high-value targets . The group reportedly developed

11880-595: Was rated second overall. In the December 2011 version of AV-Comparatives' annual reports, Kaspersky Lab's software achieved the highest overall ranking and has earned the AV Comparatives' "Product of the Year" award. On February 1, 2012, Kaspersky Internet Security earned "AV-TEST Award for Best Repair 2011" award in the field of home user products from AV-TEST Institute. On January 28, 2013, Kaspersky Endpoint Security earned "AV-TEST Award for Best Protection 2012" and "AV-TEST Award for Best Repair 2012" awards in

11990-563: Was renamed Kaspersky Anti-Virus after an American company registered the AVP trademark in the US. In 1998, a Taiwanese student released a virus called CIH . During the first three weeks of the outbreak, Kaspersky Lab's AVP was the only software at the time able to remove it. This increased demand and led to deals with antivirus companies in Japan, Finland and Germany to integrate AVP into their software. According to WIRED , Kaspersky's software

12100-508: Was unaffected. Kaspersky Lab Regional units: Dubai , UAE; Istanbul , Turkey; London , United Kingdom; Mexico City , Mexico; Midrand , South Africa; São Paulo , Brazil; Singapore ; Woburn, Massachusetts , USA Kaspersky Lab ( / k æ ˈ s p ɜːr s k i / ; Russian : Лаборатория Касперского , romanized :  Laboratoriya Kasperskogo ) is a Russian multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider headquartered in Moscow , Russia , and operated by

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