Pressure is continuing to mount on Kaspersky Lab in the US with a congressional panel asking 22 government agencies to share documents on the Moscow-based company, claiming its products could be used for “nefarious activities against the United States”.
Responses to the letters, sent by the US House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology on Thursday were sought by 11 August, Reuters reported.
The requests were for all material relating to Kaspersky Lab products dating back to 1 January 2013, inclusive of any internal risk assessments.
Kaspersky Lab has been under pressure in the US for a while, with the federal government earlier this month removing the company from a from a list of approved software suppliers for two government-wide purchasing contracts that are used to buy technology services.
{loadposition sam08}The founder of the company, Eugene Kaspersky, has offered to provide the source code of the company's products for examination in order to prove that there is no basis to the allegations of spying.
The committee said it was “concerned that Kaspersky Lab is susceptible to manipulation by the Russian government, and that its products could be used as a tool for espionage, sabotage, or other nefarious activities against the United States", according to the letters which were sent by the chairman of the committee, Republican Lamar Smith.
The report said letters were sent to all cabinet-level agencies, including the Department of Commerce and Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA among others.
Reuters said it had been told by an aide to the committee that the bid to obtain information was a “first step” and that there may be more actions depending on the responses received.
If employees of the company were in any way affected by the happenings, they did not show any sign of it, with reports that the company hosted a party at the Red Square restaurant in Las Vegas this week on the sidelines of the annual Black Hat conference.