Security software provider Kaspersky, which will soon be banned from selling or providing its services in the United States, promised a smooth transition for current customers. However, many of these customers were shocked to find that their Kaspersky antivirus software had suddenly deleted itself and was automatically replaced with UltraAV, with out their consent, which is developed by the Pango Group.
In a post on Kaspersky’s official forums, an employee shared that “antivirus customers received a software update facilitating the transition to UltraAV. This update ensured that users would not experience a gap in protection upon Kaspersky’s exit from the market.” This statement just glosses over the fact that this happened without any kind of input from users.
As expected, customers were less than pleased with the way the transition was executed. Many responses to the official statement shared negative experiences with UltraAV, confusion about settings being transferred, and some having been forced to make the move even though they’re outside the United States. The comments were no better on the company’s subreddit, with one user sharing that UltraAV persisted on their system after uninstalling and rebooting, leading to concerns of being infected by malware.
It’s shocking that one of Kaspersky’s final acts for its customers was so ham fisted, as it has been a pillar in the computer security community for several decades. It’s understandable it didn’t want customers to experience any kind of gap in security, but to simply switch over customers to a new software solution with no action on their part was a terrible idea. It makes the decision by the US government to ban the company seem reasonable, which might not have appeared to be the case prior to this incident.
Time will tell if this behavior will impact Kasperky’s reputation in the other regions it’s still allowed to operate in.