Jane Edwards
Kaspersky Lab has issued a preliminary report saying the company initially detected the Equation malware in September 2014 and that its advanced persistent threat investigation has not showed any relation to the alleged APT incidents in 2015 up until this year.
Kaspersky said Wednesday its findings are based on a review of telemetry logs this month in response to media claims that the company experienced similar threats two years ago.
The company noted that it observed Equation APT infections in over 40 countries and that it notified U.S. government agencies about those active infections.
“The incident where the new Equation samples were detected used our line of products for home users, with [Kaspersky Security Network] enabled and automatic sample submission of new and unknown malware turned on,†the company said in its release.
Kaspersky said it also detected a fake key generator, also known as the Backdoor.Win32.Mokes.hvl malware, in a folder and a variant of Equation APT malware in the 7zip archive that was removed from all the company’s systems.
The company also noted that it did not detect any third party breach in its networks apart from the Duqu 2.0 malware.
The Russia-based company’s preliminary report came a month after the Department of Homeland Security issued a directive that requires federal agencies to remove Kaspersky Lab’s anti-virus software and related products from their information systems within 90 days.
