As per news source, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Italian government is all set to check the use of Russian anti-virus software in the public sector fearing Moscow could hijack the programs to hack key websites.
The Senate was informed by Franco Gabrielli, the state undersecretary for security, that the government was working on rules to allow state bodies to pull the plug on software developed by the Russia-based Kaspersky Lab.
The new rules allow public administrations to replace all software that are considered to be potentially dangerous, without facing penalties, as per the government source.
A second source said the regulation could be approved as early as this week.
Kaspersky's office in Italy said it was monitoring the situation with "great concern" and was especially worried about its employees, warning that they risked suffering from decisions that were based on geopolitics rather than technical issues.
"We hope that this attitude will not lead to the implementation of illiberal legislation that would primarily affect our Italian partners, families and citizens," Kaspersky said in an email to the news source.
The security company mentioned that it is a privately-managed company with no ties to the Russian government.
In a recommendation issued on Tuesday, Italy's state cybersecurity agency said there was no evidence products provided by companies linked to Russia had been compromised since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
However, it warned that risks needed to be reassessed amid the growing conflict and that anti-virus software was particularly sensitive due to the "high level of invasiveness" of the systems they serve.
