Kaspersky Lab is shutting down all its operations in the US by July 2024 due to recent ban

Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab has confirmed that it will officially end its U.S. operations on July 20, 2024, following sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), imposed on back in June. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Commerce has added Kaspersky Lab and its affiliates to the Entity List, preventing American businesses from engaging with them.

The sanctions and entity listing were prompted by an investigation that deemed Kaspersky's operations a national security threat, citing concerns over the Russian government's cyber capabilities and potential influence over the company. The Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) has also prohibited Kaspersky from selling its software and providing antivirus updates in the U.S., effective September 29, 2024.

The company stated that the U.S. government's measures have made it impossible to continue its operations in the country, and announced it will lay off fewer than 50 U.S.-based employees as a result of these actions. The ban will also affect white-label products that use Kaspersky software under different names, so individuals and companies may want to start considering alternatives such as Bitdefender Antivirus, ESET NOD32 Antivirus or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, or any of the multiple options listed on Kaspersky's alternative page.