Kasperksky Lab shifts customer data out of Russia

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Kaspersky Lab has announced it is moving a number of its core processes out of Russia and in to Switzerland as it looks to be more transparent.

The Russian firm has said it will relocate "a number of core processes" in the move, including customer data storage and processing for a number of its biggest regions, including the US and UK.

The information will instead now be stored on Kaspersky Lab's new data centre in Zurich, which was revealed back in March. The Swiss capital will also be the new site for the company's software assembly, and a new Transparency Centre aimed at dispelling fears that Kaspersky Lab software is being used for surveillance. 

Transparency

Kaspersky Lab hoping to have the transition completed by the end of next year.

Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab, said: “In a rapidly changing industry such as ours we have to adapt to the evolving needs of our clients, stakeholders and partners. Transparency is one such need, and that is why we’ve decided to redesign our infrastructure and move our data processing facilities to Switzerland. We believe such action will become a global trend for cybersecurity, and that a policy of trust will catch on across the industry as a key basic requirement.”

Kaspersky has come under fire in recent months under allegations that its products were being used to spy on foreign nations, particularly the US, UK and Lithuania.

The company was blocked from working with the US government following a ban from the Department of Homeland Security last year, which ordered all federal agencies to remove Kaspersky products from their networks.

Following this, Kaspersky Lab committed to a new Global Transparency Initiative that aimed to demonstrate its innocence to the technology industry, with other actions including setting up an independent review of the company’s source code, software updates and threat detection rules.

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