“We have completed the work and will advance next week, after the interministerial approval process, at the CSAT level and so on, the law that bans Russian antivirus in public institutions, in the public sector,” said Digitalization Minister Sebastian Burdugia. said on Friday.

All authorities and public institutions in Romania will be required to remove and stop purchasing and using anti-virus products and services from organizations originating from or controlled by the Russian Federation, such as Kaspersky Lab or Group-IB solutions, in accordance with of a bill initiated by the Ministry of Digital Technologies led by Liberal Sebastien Bourduilla, which HotNews.ro wrote in May this year.

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• “The reasons for establishing this ban are related, on the one hand, to the context created by the war launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, and on the other hand, to the insufficient independence of Russian structures that provide IT solutions.
• The legislative measure is initiated in a wider European context, where EU member states have outright banned Kaspersky Lab and Group-IB products and services because there is information that both organizations allow the Russian government to penetrate computer systems and networks. in which their software is installed.”, this is shown in the draft law consulted by HotNews.ro.

Kaspersky’s response to HotNews.ro’s request:

• “Kaspersky is aware of a bill that indicates government plans to ban the use of Russian or directly or indirectly Russian-owned cybersecurity products in the public sector and require their replacement within a very short period of time.
• We deeply regret that we, as a private cyber security company, have been affected by the ban, which will remain in place until a peace agreement or permanent ceasefire is reached.
• As always, we are open to responding to any concerns that regulators and customers may have about our operations and products in a fully transparent, open and objective manner, including through Kaspersky’s transparency centers operating in Europe.” This was stated by representatives of “Kaspersky Laboratory” at the request of HotNews.ro.

With the appeal of HotNews.ro, at the time the Minister of Digitalization, Sebastian Burduya, said that the initiative arose as a result of public information, according to which public institutions are calling for these decisions, including the Bucharest City Hall, and it appeared after an analysis through which we found that other countries- EU members have taken similar measures”.

Examples from other countries – details from the bill:

The bill prohibits central and local government authorities and institutions from purchasing and using device security products and services (endpoint security), anti-virus software and malware detection programs, Web Application Firewall, virtual private networks (Virtual Private Network), as well as systems for detection and response to endpoints (Endpoint Detection Response) coming from the Russian Federation or under the direct or indirect control of a natural or legal person from the Russian Federation.

Authorities and institutions that do not remove the Kaspersky solution risk a fine of 50,000 to 200,000 lei

Within 45 days from the date of entry into force of the law, all products and services of the above type will be disabled, respectively removed from the networks and computer systems of authorities and state institutions at the central and local levels.

Shutdown, accordingly, removal will be carried out by authorities and central and local government agencies that have installed such programs on their networks and computer systems.

Disconnection, accordingly, deletion will be performed with support The Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, the Romanian Digitization Authority, the National Cyber ​​Security Directorate, the Romanian Intelligence Service and the Special Telecommunications Service.

The ban is temporary and applies for the entire duration of the invasion of the Russian Federation against Ukraine until the date of signing a peace treaty or a permanent armistice agreement establishing the territorial integrity of Ukraine, compensation for damages caused to the invaded country, as well as the cooperation of the Russian Federation with national and international bodies , authorized to punish persons guilty of war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Non-fulfillment of these provisions by state bodies and institutions shall constitute a violation and shall be punishable by a fine of 50,000 and 200,000 lei.

Detection and enforcement of violations is carried out by special personnel appointed by order of the Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitalization.

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