Time to switch to Microsoft Defender

For several years now, the National Cyber Security Centre has taken the approach that anti-malware software from Russian company, Kaspersky was probably perfectly acceptable for UK businesses, but these products shouldn’t be used by Central Government, considering how an anti-virus product could be abused – and the potential impact if this occurred.

Kaspersky has consistently behaved well and been a good security citizen, contributing excellent research to the wider community. However, the risk of the company being pressured to ensure that their products turned a blind eye to threats from Russian Government cyber threats has long been a concern.

In 2017, the US Department of Homeland Security went further and banned the US Government from using Kaspersky products because of very specific concerns. In the spirit of responsibly addressing these concerns, Kaspersky has relocated many of its data centres and personnel to Switzerland and has allowed extensive external audit.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has meant that the ongoing use of Kaspersky products is no longer tenable by any of us. Despite the fact that there is no evidence of the company ever having been a bad actor, the fact remains that anti-malware software penetrates every corner of our networks and has to have a high degree of privilege and access to be effective. This level of access being provided to a company based in Russia should be a source of concern at the highest level of every organisation.

Additionally, with current sanctions in place, there are legitimate concerns that licensing revenue is supporting a company that ultimately pays taxes and contributes to the Russian state.

What can we do if you are a Kaspersky user?

The good news is that there is an effective alternative in the Microsoft Defender platform that you may already be licensed for and can be rolled out rapidly. Over recent years we have assisted in many of clients of all sizes in rolling out Defender at scale to replace their existing anti-malware solutions.

Microsoft continually updates security intelligence in anti-malware products to cover the latest threats and to constantly tweak detection logic, enhancing the ability of Microsoft Defender Antivirus and other Microsoft anti-malware solutions to accurately identify threats.

Quorum have an incredibly strong background with Microsoft Security and Identity. Should you require any guidance, we can design and deliver secure and highly resilient solutions that support your business.