A Russian cybersecurity company suspected of links to the Kremlin is alleged to have exposed a covert American counterterrorism programme targeting Islamist extremists. Kaspersky Lab, the antivirus software company whose programs were recently banned from government computers in the US, warned users this month about a malicious piece of code circulating called “Slingshot” that was capable of hacking into routers to spy on internet activity. The malware, it warned, had been detected in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Turkey and Yemen, and it urged its consumers to use its products to check for and remove the virus. However, it now appears that Slingshot is actually part of a programme run by the US military employing software to monitor jihadists using internet cafés in the Middle…

Source: The Times March 22, 2018 00:00 UTC