So with the ridiculous US ban on historically super effective KasperskyAV because it’s made in a country of “our geopolitical enemies”.
i mean we all knew that was coming once it was too effective at identifying spooks malware. However I expected it to at most stop functioning and stop giving virus definition updates and program updates. I didn’t expect it to be replaced by some shitty unknown likely subpar product UltraAv.
I have a renewal code but havent applied and plan to keep my KasperskyAv installed. As well as since I’m about to start back writing more viruses myself as a way to test it against this AV engine.
is anybody still running it succesfully stateside for personal use ? can you give me the things you’ve done to ensure you don’t get downgraded to UltraAv
I’m happy to do some testing, but I would imagine it’ll be detected using a combination of factors, both at the sales/account level, and at the Windows Installation level.
This is an educated guess, so anyone with further insight please feel free to fill in the gaps.
-
You’ve purchased Kaspersky directly or from an authorised US reseller - The license code you’ve acquired will be identifiable as obtained in the US, and will thus trigger your Kaspersky account to tell the software to auto-replace with UltraAV.
-
The installer is able to detect from your Windows Locale (English US), that you’re in the US, along with (possibly) your IP address, and will therefore trigger the installation to auto-replace with UltraAV.
My recommendation would be to get a VPN, connect to somewhere like the UK, create a new Kaspersky account, purchase a license (either from a source like G2A set to UK, or from Amazon UK) and activate a new installation (you’ll probably need to do this on a fresh install of Windows, just make sure to set the system language to English UK, and your keyboard layout to English US).
The hope is that this would tie your Kaspersky installation and account to another country, thus allowing you to resume normal use of the software without interruption. I’ll set up a full test for this this week to work out what the workarounds and limitations are, if anyone wants to join in, that would be great too.
Failing all of this, it might just be worth knocking off altogether and switching to another solution.
I was able to contact kaspersky support and they denied me a refund even though I paid for a service that I will no longer be receiving
Oddly, in our 2-PC household, both PCs had UltraAV auto-installed - PC1 about a week head of PC2. PC1’s Kaspersky was uninstalled right away, but PC2 still has Kaspersky installed. Possibly because PC2 is logged in as a user without admin rights? (wild guess) But the antivirus database has failed to update since two days ago (last update 9/26) even if I manually click on the update button. Our licence, purchased via Digital River, is good through October 2025.
Kaspersky on our devices seem to be still running. Two devices on the same licence have current databases (9/28, today’s date) We still haven’t decided what to do yet. Probably looking into ESET, F-Secure, and Bitdefender.
I’m feeling defeated, folks. Was so hopeful last night that I managed to get it to update via VPN, but I’m finding out that Safe Money doesn’t seem to be working without VPN, and with VPN, my financial institutions seem to be blocking access (I can’t blame them for blocking; I’d be alarmed too, if a foreign IP address was trying to access the FI websites)
Pretty sure the change to UltraAV is more to do with option 2 than option 1 you mention above. I’ve had at least 4 computers on Kaspersky for years now, until a week or so ago when 3 of them changed to UltraAV. The 4th one still has Kaspersky on it and is still being updated for the moment as this machine is on a VPN in another country. Not sure how long it’s going to last when the VPN drops out at some point and it drops back to the US. Will be interested to see if I’ll be able to reinstall Kaspersky after I reconnect the VPN or not. I’ve just been using the free version of Kaspersky and being they limit the free to 3 PCs per email I have a couple different accounts, but all were created in the US.
Not sure if it’s possible to set up a VPN or proxy for just Kaspersky and keep everything else I have in the US for my other machines or not. That would be nice if that was easily possible.
You da goat. I am finishing some coding project right now. Then I have to migrate a webserver. And I also have to prepare for another international trip for a minute. Though I look forward to the results.
If worse goes to worse I guess i could fall back to ESET or Bitdedender. Tho I tried Bitdefender for a year or two and much more preferred KAV premium features set and console.
I’m presuming it would have to be something if not with the My Kaspersky account then with Locale or the installer you used. I remember the installers were regionalized back on the mass Download site…but I don’t remember the URL for it.
Can’t really blame them when our incompetent leaders are the ones causing this, it’s not like they chose to stop providing us with service. If anything the government should give is our money back, they got all that money to send to Ukraine and stuff, surely they could give us back the money we lost because of their forced bait and switch.
that’s unfortunate but kinda expected with the whole getting forced out of US operstions in September. also when I heard they shutdown the GReAT malware analysis research teams in the US.
However my question is more for the technical side rather than calling and begging some support representatives to violate US orders and keep me on. I know CSRs are usually not helpful. So I want to know if anyone here is employee technical controls to essentially SPOOF to the antivirus that it isn’t operating in US so that it doesn’t uninstall Kaspersky an update to UltraAV which is prob crappy as hell
Just successfully updated PC2’s databases on VPN. Guess I can try and update manually on a daily basis, but not sure if I’ll be able to pull it off after Sept 30. And this will be a bit of a hassle even if I can. Just buying some time while I research other AV options.
Some people have reported that their license key has been blocked from receiving updates even with a foreign VPN. Your fourth computer may not have been infected with UltraAV because of the foreign VPN, but Kaspersky might still stop delivering signatures. Who knows, it’s hard to predict.
Yes, Kaspersky is unlikely to be helpful because they know our government could snap its fingers and half the world would ban them too. Could always try what you said and see if it works just beware of drawing the wrath of our government. Lol
Mine also successfully updated today after I changed VPN location. Tomorrow will come with the day of reconning and will be testing again.
Have you tried, for at least the main menu part:
Kaspersky main menu; choose Security. Choose the option wheel. Choose “Update Sources”. Input a second backup source from https://support.kaspersky.com/us/common/start/6105 - say type in http://dnl-06.geo.kaspersky.com (Kaspersky update server in Mexico City vs the standard US default). Save.
See https://helpdesk.kaseya.com/hc/en-gb/articles/229014108-List-of-Kaspersky-Lab-servers-used-for-downloading-antivirus-database-updates-new-application-modules-and-patches for which update server is what IP (where it is).
May not even require a VPN for right now. And if Kamela Harris looses, this may become a non-issue next year.
Everything is going good right now, but I will definitely look into this information as well, thank you.
Yes! This is definitely happening because of the election. I remember having a “brief” instance of this same situation 8 years ago, when they tried to ban it before the 2016 election because of “Russian interference,” so I definitely agree on that.
Ganbare, ganbare, little boy~ 
Your wittle fingers can type faster than that, I’m sure.
D’awwww, wittle boy don’t know how to do nothing else but throw tantrum. He’s soooo cute 
