Over the weekend, Google eliminated Kaspersky’s Android safety apps from the Google Play retailer and disabled the Russian firm’s developer accounts.
Customers have been reporting over the past week that Kaspersky’s merchandise (together with Kaspersky Endpoint Safety and VPN & Antivirus by Kaspersky) are not obtainable on Google Play in the USA and different world areas.
Kaspersky confirmed the problem on the corporate’s official boards on Sunday and stated that it is at present investigating why its software program is not obtainable on Google’s app retailer.
“The downloads and updates of Kaspersky merchandise are briefly unavailable on the Google Play retailer,” a Kaspersky worker stated.
“Kaspersky is at present investigating the circumstances behind the problem and exploring potential options to make sure that customers of its merchandise can proceed downloading and updating their purposes from Google Play.”
Whereas the apps are unavailable, Kaspersky suggested customers to put in them from various app shops, together with the Galaxy Retailer, Huawei AppGallery, and Xiaomi GetApps. The corporate’s safety apps will also be put in by downloading the .apk set up file from Kaspersky’s web site.
This help web page gives extra info on set up and activate Kaspersky’s software program on Android units.
This comes after Kaspersky advised BleepingComputer in July that it will shut down its United States operations after the U.S. authorities sanctioned the corporate and 12 executives and banned Kaspersky antivirus software program over nationwide safety issues in June.
In an announcement earlier in the present day, Google confirmed this prompted the choice to dam Kaspersky and its merchandise on the Google Play retailer.
“The U.S. Division of Commerce’s Bureau of Trade and Safety just lately introduced a wide range of restrictions on Kaspersky. Consequently, we’ve got eliminated Kaspersky’s apps from Google Play,” a Google spokesperson advised BleepingComputer.
In September, the Russian multinational cybersecurity firm deleted its anti-malware software program from clients’ computer systems throughout the USA and changed it with UltraAV’s antivirus answer with out informing its clients or asking for permission.
Replace October 04, 13:23 EDT: Added Google assertion.