A Russian cyber security company is campaigning in the Baltic nations

In mid-June, the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPA) wrote about the PR campaigns of the Russian cyber security company Kaspersky in the Baltic nations.

In March, the Lithuanian national broadcasting portal LRT published a series of articles focusing on online security, using Kaspersky specialists as experts, which included stories of their tips and quotes. The editor-in-chief of the publication subsequently admitted that they have now learned that such a series of articles was a mistake. He referred to a young journalist who had fallen into the trap of skillful public relations.

In April, Latvian Delfi published an opinion article from Jevgeni Kaspersky, the founder of Kaspersky, who called on doctors and medical organizations to take a covid-19 special package deal free of charge for six months.

Last December, Latvia launched Delfi Kaspersky’s advertising campaign, which used locals for directional canvassing.

The use of Kaspersky software has raised a number of questions in recent years. In 2017, the USA banned the use of this company’s products in the public sector, a year later Dutch did so as well. Recommendations not to use Kaspersky software has also been expressed by the United Kingdom, as well as Lithuania.

No restrictive public recommendations by authorities on the use of Kaspersky products have been issued in Estonia.

Kaspersky is an anti-virus software company founded in Russia in 1997, the founder of which, Eugene Kaspersky, has been called Russia’s Elon Musk by the President of Russia.

From time to time, there are discussions about the security of software from Russia and the use of the data they collect. Yandex, for example, continues to raise security issues and, like Kaspersky software, is directly prohibited or advised from being used by government officials and agencies.

Photo:  Sergey Galyonkin/Flickr/CC