Mysterious operative haunted Kaspersky critics

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://apnews.com/a3144f4ef5ab4588af7aba789e9892ed

By RAPHAEL SATTER
The Associated Press
April 17, 2019

LONDON (AP) -- Keir Giles’ first thought was that the man’s cheap-looking suit 
didn’t seem right for a private equity executive. The man seated in front of 
him at the London hotel claimed to live in Hong Kong, but didn’t seem overly 
familiar with the city. Then there was the awkward conversation, which kept 
returning to one topic in particular: the Russian antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab.

He also asked Giles to repeat himself or speak louder so persistently that 
Giles said he began wondering “whether I should be speaking into his tie or his 
briefcase or wherever the microphone was.”

“He was drilling down hard on whether there had been any ulterior motives 
behind negative media commentary on Kaspersky,” said Giles, a Russia specialist 
with London’s Chatham House thinktank who often has urged caution about 
Kaspersky’s alleged Kremlin connections. “The angle he wanted to push was that 
individuals — like me — who had been quoted in the media had been induced by or 
motivated to do so by Kaspersky’s competitors.”

The Associated Press has learned that the mysterious man, who said his name was 
Lucas Lambert, spent several months last year investigating critics of 
Kaspersky Lab, organizing at least four meetings with cybersecurity experts in 
London and New York.

[...]

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