Amid cybersecurity concerns from Russia, prominent US electronics retailer to pull out Kaspersky products

Best Buy Co., the No.1 U.S. electronics retailer, is pulling Kaspersky Lab’s cyber security products from its shelves and website, amid concerns that the Moscow-based firm may be vulnerable to Russian government influence.

[caption id=“attachment_3856223” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative image. Reuters.[/caption]

Best Buy felt there were “too many unanswered questions” and so decided to discontinue selling the antivirus products, said U.S. newspaper StarTribune, which first reported the retailer’s decision, citing a source familiar with the matter.

A Best Buy spokeswoman confirmed the report but declined to provide further details. A U.S. Congressional panel had asked government agencies to share documents on the cybersecurity firm, saying its products could be used to carry out “nefarious activities against the United States”, Reuters reported in July

The U.S. administration had in July removed Kaspersky from its lists of approved vendors used by government agencies to purchase technology equipment.

Kaspersky, which has denied ties with any government, said on Friday the companies had suspended their ties.

According to a previous report , the FBI had interviewed several U.S. employees of Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab as part of an agency probe of the company’s operations, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents had visited the homes of Kaspersky employees in multiple U.S. cities, though no search warrants were served, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the FBI probe.

The news followed the disclosure by senior U.S. intelligence officials, in a testimony before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, that they were reviewing government use of software from Kaspersky Lab, as lawmakers had raised concerns that Moscow might use the firm’s products to attack American computer networks.

In response, Eugene Kaspersky, the company’s founder and chief executive, had said during a question-and-answer session on Reddit that he would be willing to appear before the Senate to dispel any concerns about his company’s products.