Only six out of 102 Federal agencies failed to meet the first deadline in the Department of Homeland Security’s directive to identify and uninstall all Kaspersky Lab software, a House Science subcommittee heard Tuesday.
“A small number of very small agencies” are receiving DHS help to complete the first stage of the directive, testified Jeanette Manfra, assistant secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications at the DHS’s National Protection and Programs Directorate.
The subcommittee on oversight held its second hearing on Kaspersky Lab software as part of announced series on the firm.
DHS directed federal agencies to cease using Kaspersky Antivirus and other programs on September 13. A number of media reports claim that Russian intelligence agencies took advantage of the antivirus’s file scanning system to search for classified files on U.S. systems.
Manfra acknowledged that for years before issuing the directive, DHS had tried to curtail federal and critical infrastructure use of Kaspersky Lab software through classified briefings.
She said she had been aware of the Kaspersky issue since at least 2014, but the department had tried to use behind the scenes methods to limit Kaspersky installations rather than operate in a way visible to the public.
The first deadline gave agencies 60 days to identify all Kaspersky software on systems and develop a plan to remove it.
Manfra said that all agencies had attempted to comply with the DHS directive, but that six small agencies without the resources to hunt for Kaspersky software were unable to complete the task on their own. The DHS, she said, was currently helping those agencies move forward.
She also said around 15 percent of government systems had Kaspersky products installed.
Usually, she said, this was because the software was preinstalled on a government-purchased system but not uninstalled.
Kaspersky has denied any willful involvement with espionage operations.
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Most federal agencies on track to remove Russian software from systems: https://t.co/KE9AJK7EVH pic.twitter.com/RZLo7xCaZ4
— The Hill (@thehill) November 14, 2017
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