With more foreign-linked firms headed for the United States trade restriction list, uncertainty looms for not only the cybersecurity firm involved

In April this year, the US government had told news agencies that it was preventing American firms from using software made by a major Russian cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky.

This came as the country’s Senate was already weighing the bill to force China-owned TikTok to find a new owner or face a ban.

As of 11pm GMT on 20 June 2024 in South-east Asia, word has been out that the US government will be following through on its plan on Thursday, 20 June, according to Reuters.

The sweeping new rule, applicable via the broad powers created earlier by the Trump administration, will be accompanied by a policy to add Kaspersky to a trade restriction list, which effectively bars a firm’s suppliers in America from selling to it. Until confirmed, word is that the ban would also disallow downloads of software updates, resales and licensing of the firm’s product, and would take effect starting 29 September 2024, 100 days after publication, to allow organizations to find alternatives within the grace period.

While the announcement has yet to be made official at the time of this story’s creation in the Asia Pacific region, it is understood that the official intentions — dating back to April this year — have not elicited comments from either the country’s Commerce Department, Kaspersky Lab or the Russian Embassy. As to general doubts expressed since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war, Kaspersky has always maintained that it is a privately managed company with no ties to the Russian government. The firm has even ever offered its source code to the US government for inspection.

Editor’s note: Kaspersky hasbeena contributorof its global research projects andnews analyses to CybersecAsia.net since our inception in 2018.Our editorial team hasalways been diligent in vetting content from all contributing organizations for possible inaccuracies, biases or other agendas, and we are of the opinion that Kaspersky content has always been above board and agnostic to any Russia-linked political events thus far.This is a developing story while the announcement is (possibly) made, and reactions from newsmakers are collated.