U.S. Users Find Kaspersky Replaced with Unknown UltraAV
Brook.X
Kaspersky announced earlier that it had entered a partnership with American anti-virus software developer UltraAV. In the U.S. market, all Kaspersky installations will eventually be automatically replaced with UltraAV, which will also honor the remaining subscription period for Kaspersky users.
The root cause of this development is the U.S. government's ban on Kaspersky Lab, demanding that Kaspersky stop providing any online virus database updates to existing users by the end of September. This move forced Kaspersky to exit the U.S. market and compelled current users to switch to other antivirus software.
The U.S. government expressed concerns that Russia could use Kaspersky products to surveil American citizens and companies and gather intelligence. Kaspersky denied these claims and offered to provide its source code for inspection, but this proposal was ignored by U.S. regulators.
Left with no choice, Kaspersky decided to sell its U.S. operations to a domestic company. UltraAV, a virtually unknown company (actually a newly established company), became the successor of Kaspersky in the U.S. market.
According to earlier information disclosed by Kaspersky, devices with Kaspersky antivirus software installed will have Kaspersky replaced with UltraAV through automatic update technology, unless users manually intervene before the replacement.
The replacement plan has already been implemented. On Windows 10/11 systems, Kaspersky has been automatically replaced with UltraAV, likely using the permissions of the licensed software (i.e., Kaspersky) to complete the upgrade and replacement.
On macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android systems, users must manually download and install UltraAV and manually uninstall Kaspersky. This is because Kaspersky updates through app stores cannot be directly replaced unless they also change their product name to UltraAV.
The security industry is shocked by the cooperation between Kaspersky and UltraAV, mainly because, in the security field, everyone is usually familiar with each other. A low-profile, unknown company like UltraAV indeed raises some concerns.
UltraAV is part of Pango, a company based in Boston, USA, which had previously collaborated with Kaspersky. Earlier, Pango was acquired by another U.S. company, Aura.
The antivirus core engine in UltraAV comes from the Indian supplier Max Secure Software. About two years ago, Aura acquired this Indian security software developer—a company that is also very low-profile.
Typically, antivirus software developers allow independent testers to assess their products for rendering, but neither UltraAV nor Max Secure have undertaken such actions, leaving almost no one in the industry aware of their product performance.
