Two West European countries to check Kaspersky Lab source code

MOSCOW, Apr 17 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Kaspersky Lab has received requests from Switzerland and another Western European country to check its source code, Vice-president for Public Affairs Anton Shingarev told PRIME on Wednesday.

“A regulator from Western Europe will come in July (to the transparency center in Zurich). Moreover, we’ve received another request. It’s one of the state agencies responsible for cybersecurity in Switzerland,” Shingarev said, adding that the Swiss authorities will most likely check the code in June–August.

Kaspersky Lab opened its first transparency center in Zurich in November 2018 and started processing malicious and suspicious data from European users. It is part of the company’s global initiative on information openness announced in October 2017 after the U.S. banned Kaspersky Lab products for the government.

The second center was opened in April in Madrid, and similar facilities will be opened in Canada and South-East Asia.

“The transparency centers are already good for us. We hear it from many high-ranking officials and politicians, they say they appreciate the possibility to study the source code of our solutions. They often add they know everything is all right with us, and the code has nothing undocumented, but it’s important for them to have an opportunity to check the code, even retrospectively,” Shingarev said.

The company’s Chief Business Officer Alexander Moiseyev said that the centers really helped “clients who could not help but be disturbed by the rumors about the company.”

One of Italy’s big banks placed a big software order with Kaspersky Lab a week following the launch of the center in Switzerland, he said.

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