Kaspersky wants to make Tor illegal and supports a globalized policed internet.

[Kyle Williams <kyle.kwilliams@xxxxxxxxx>]

I just read two articles that moved me to bring this to the attention
of others.  Kaspersky Labs thinks anonymity is the problem with the
Internet.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/16/kaspersky_rebukes_net_anonymity/
"
In Kaspersky's world, services such as Psiphon and The Onion Router
(Tor) - which are legitimately used by Chinese dissidents and Google
users alike to shield personally identifiable information - would no
longer be legal. Or at least they'd have to be redesigned from the
ground up to give police the ability to surveil them. That's not the
kind of world many law-abiding citizens would feel comfortable
inhabiting.
"

He's talking about supporting a police state, where the "law" can
watch everything you do.

http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/security/0,39044829,62058697,00.htm
"
[Q:] Are you saying that people often don't understand the
complexities of the work security researchers are involved in?
Consumers, businesses and even governments?
[A:] Governments do understand because they are more and more in touch
with these problems. Enterprises, big enterprises, some of them have
dedicated teams of security experts and they really understand what's
going on. Consumers generally have no clue, but they don't need to
understand.
"

The only thing that works better than his A/V software is a well
informed and educated user.
My mom didn't know shit about what to do and not to do on the Internet
and downloaded everything that was free, and that's why I would have
to "fix" his computer every few months even though she uses AVG and
SpyBot.  Finally I sat her down, explained to her why this was
happening, and told her not to do that anymore if she wanted her
computer to work right.  She listened, and hasn't had any serious
problems for a few years now.

From the same article...
"
[Q:] If you had the power to change up to three things in the world
today that are related to IT security, what would they be?
[A:] Internet design--that's enough.

[Q:] That's it? What's wrong with the design of the Internet?
[A:] There's anonymity. Everyone should and must have an
identification, or Internet passport. The Internet was designed not
for public use, but for American scientists and the U.S. military.
That was just a limited group of people--hundreds, or maybe thousands.
Then it was introduced to the public and it was wrong…to introduce it
in the same way.
I'd like to change the design of the Internet by introducing
regulation--Internet passports, Internet police and international
agreement--about following Internet standards. And if some countries
don't agree with or don't pay attention to the agreement, just cut
them off.
"

This is scary talk from a man who owns the largest anti-virus company
in the eastern hemisphere.  Read these articles, and you'll see this
guy talks about a global "Internet police" or "Internet Interpol".
That's serious globalization talk from someone who millions trust to
protect their computers.  All they need to do is label some code as
malicious, and it'll be removed from your PC after the next A/V
update....even if you use it to regain lost civil liberties.  How long
until Kaspersky labels Tor a trojan or virus?  If that happens, then
what?

People who seek to control society fear society having anonymity, for
it's with anonymity that society can stand up against corruption of
the state when it occurs.  The latest Iran election and the actions
that followed are a great example of this, and it's was technology
such as Tor that helped them get the truth out about what was being
done.  When was the last time a trojan horse or virus helped a country
regain liberty or help bypass censorship?  To treat Tor as such
malware is down right insulting to people's rights everywhere.

Normally I would never think about the following, but as a developer,
I'm weighing the idea of detecting, disabling, and/or deleting
Kaspersky before installing any of the projects I work on.  Such
action should be brought to the users attention, and the action to do
something about it should be evoked by the user.  However, if
Kaspersky does go too far and labels Tor as malware, you can be damn
sure JanusVM, *maybe* Tor VM, and Chromium Browser VM will take
automated action to prevent itself from being attacked by Kaspersky
products, and will do so in a very harsh way.

Something worth noting, today's A/V solutions do not scan inside
virtual machines and would not be able to detect Tor easily.  Use
encryption with the VM and it'll be impossible for any A/V product to
scan the data inside.  If you use an external anonymity device like
januspa or a linux router + Tor, then you would not feel the affects
of bad A/V software against your anonymity.

Personally, I will be encouraging everyone I know to stay as far away
from this company and their products simply out of principle at this
point.  I had no problem with Kaspersky until I read this.  If
Kaspersky is going to treat non malicious software as malware, then we
might as well treat their software with the same regard.

Spread the word, Kaspersky Labs is not a friend of Tor.

Best regards,
Kyle

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do
nothing." - Edmund Burke
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