Kaspersky hearing delayed by tax retreat, no new date

A sure-to-be-controversial congressional hearing featuring the head of a major Russian cybersecurity firm as a star witness was delayed because of the Republicans’ tax reform retreat and no new date for the hearing has been set, a congressional staffer told Code and Dagger.

Eugene Kaspersky, founder of the Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs, was invited (PDF) on Sept. 14 to appear before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on Sept. 27 to defend his firm, which the U.S. government has accused of being closely linked to Russian intelligence. The day before the invitation, the Department of Homeland Security directed all federal agencies to remove Kaspersky products from their systems.

“The risk that the Russian government, whether acting on its own or in collaboration with Kaspersky, could capitalize on access provided by Kaspersky products to compromise federal information and information systems directly implicates U.S. national security,” the DHS said.

Eugene Kaspersky vocally defended his company, offered to show the U.S. government his products’ source code and quickly accepted the invitation. In comments reported by the Russian news service TASS today, he said he already got his U.S. visa for the trip.

Read the whole story from Code and Dagger.

Featured image courtesy of DVIDS