Shaheen Letter Calls on Trump Administration to Declassify Information on Kaspersky Lab

(Washington, DC) — As hearings on Kaspersky Lab’s threat to the federal government begin in the House of Representatives, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a member of both the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, sent a letter to Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke and National Intelligence Director Daniel Coats calling on the Trump administration to immediately declassify information on Kaspersky Lab to raise public awareness regarding the serious threat that the Moscow-based software company poses to the United States’ national security.

“As we now know, Kaspersky Lab was used by Russian intelligence services to obtain highly-sensitive data through targeting an NSA employee’s home computer. Furthermore, Kaspersky Lab has engaged in a campaign of offering free anti-virus protection to computer users nationwide, despite the seeming ramifications to the company’s bottom line,” wrote Senator Shaheen. “These incidents as well as the long-standing links between Kaspersky Lab and the Kremlin continue to concern me and my colleagues. Therefore, I urge you to declassify information about Kaspersky Lab and its products for the public good.”

Earlier this month, Senator Shaheen sent a letter to the leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee, requesting a hearing on the use of Kaspersky Lab software to hack the National Security Agency in 2015. Shaheen has led efforts in Congress to ban the use of Kaspersky Lab software from the entire federal government, and included a critical amendment to the annual defense authorization bill in the legislation that passed the Senate in September. The Trump administration heeded her call, and soon after, ordered federal agencies to remove the software from government computers within 90 days. Prior to this ban, Senator Shaheen authored an editorial for the New York Times, warning of the dangers of the United States government using Kaspersky Lab software, which can be read in full here.   

Senator Shaheen’s letter to the Trump administration can be read here.