Anti-virus developer, Kaspersky, has revealed it’s opening a new data centre in Switzerland, as the Moscow-based company aims to combat national security concerns of Western governments.
Kaspersky has faced considerable global backlash, around allegations the Russian government exploits its software to spy on customers.
Last year, several American and British government agencies officially removed Kaspersky products from their networks.
Kaspersky maintains its stance the Russian government does not infiltrate its anti-virus software, and has filed a lawsuit against the American ban.
Speaking of its new Swiss data centre, Kaspersky claims the development is part of its commitment to “global transparency”.
“To further deliver on the promises of our global transparency initiative, we are finalising plans for the opening of the company’s first transparency centre this year, which will be located in Europe”
“We understand that during a time of geopolitical tension, mirrored by an increasingly complex cyber threat landscape, people may have questions and we want to address them”.
Work at its new ‘Swiss Transparency Centre’ will reportedly begin “within weeks”, and is scheduled to complete in early 2020.
The new Swiss centre will be tasked with collecting and analysing suspicious files concerning Kaspersky’s United States and EU customers – in the range of tens of millions of customers.
Other countries’ customer data will reportedly still be sent to Kaspersky’s Moscow data centre.
According to Reuters, sources state Western governments’ allegations were a “trigger” for its new Swiss data centre, however, wasn’t the only factor.
Back in October, Kaspersky ran a campaign to reject security allegations, and permitted independent experts to analyse its software for vulnerabilities.
The company will also reportedly open “transparency centres” in Europe, Asia and the United States, however, further details are yet to be disclosed.
