Kaspersky statement on the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat prohibition of applications on government-issued mobile devices

Kaspersky is disappointed with the decision by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat to prohibit the use of Kaspersky applications on government-issued mobile devices. This decision comes as a surprise, was made without any warning or opportunity for engagement by Kaspersky on the Canadian government’s underlying concerns, and is not based on any technical assessment of Kaspersky products – which the company continuously advocates for – but instead seems to be made on political grounds. 

Kaspersky maintains that this prohibition is based on unsubstantiated allegations and without any public evidence of wrongdoing by the company. As there has been no evidence or due process to otherwise justify these actions, they are highly unsupported and a response to the geopolitical climate rather than a comprehensive evaluation of the integrity of Kaspersky’s products and services. 

Kaspersky will continue to assure its partners and customers on the quality and integrity of its products, and remains ready to cooperate with Canadian government agencies to address any regulatory agency’s concerns and reverse this decision. 

Since 2017, the company has been implementing a massive package of measures for greater transparency and reaffirming the security and reliability of its solutions. These include the relocation of data processing infrastructure to Switzerland for users in Europe, the U.S., Canada, Latin America and several countries in Asia-Pacific. The datacenters in Zurich, where threat data is processed, provide world-class facilities in full compliance with the industry standards. Our distributed infrastructure, including the Kaspersky Security Network’s servers, is located in different countries across the globe to ensure greater operational speed and resiliency. The security and integrity of our data services and engineering practices have been confirmed by independent third-party assessments: Kaspersky successfully passed a comprehensive SOC 2 Type 2 audit in 2023, and Kaspersky’s information security management system has been certified against the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 international standard.​ These third-party assurance documents can be provided upon request. 

Kaspersky provides industry-leading products and services to customers around the world to protect them from all types of cyber threats, and has stated clearly that it doesn’t have any ties with any government, including Russia’s. The company believes that transparency and the continued implementation of concrete measures to demonstrate its enduring commitment to integrity and trustworthiness to its customers is paramount.