National Public Radio told the Washington Free Beacon that the Moscow-based software company Kaspersky Lab, which was used by hackers to steal classified documents from the National Security Agency, is no longer one of its corporate underwriters.
NPR was still airing ads from Kaspersky on Wednesday morning and was disclosing Kaspersky Lab as a corporate sponsor in news reports last week. U.S. officials suspect the company has ties to the Kremlin—its antivirus software has been banned from U.S. government computers.
Russian hackers have been using Kaspersky Lab antivirus software as a gateway for hacking, including a home computer used by an NSA employee. Kaspersky antivirus software, which is used by roughly 400 million people worldwide, has access to every file on a computer where it is installed. Hackers backed by the Russian government weaponized Kaspersky software “into a sort of Google search for sensitive information.”
The Free Beacon asked NPR on Wednesday about Kaspersky’s corporate sponsorship. On Thursday, a spokesperson said Kaspersky is no longer a corporate underwriter.
Read more at the the Free Beacon.