After announcing last year it would be opening a transparency centre[1] in Switzerland, Kaspersky Lab has been touring the globe trying to claw back trust, following the United States government publicly denouncing support[2] of the cybersecurity firm.
Speaking with journalists in Sydney on Tuesday, Kaspersky Lab APAC managing director Stephan Neumeier said his company met with representatives from the Australian government this week, in attempt to prevent a similar situation unfolding down under.
"We had a very good meeting with the prime minister's office, we informed them of our transparency centre initiative ... we had the people with the right capabilities and skill-sets in the meeting as well -- they really understood what it means, they really understood what kind of significant investment this is from our side," he explained.
"The information was very well-received by the prime minister's office, meeting went very, very well -- bottom line is we don't want to have the same situation here in Australia that we have in the US and we keep the dialogue with them, inform them of what we do. If there are concerns in the future and the transparency centre is up and running, we are going to invite them to Switzerland to see for themselves what we have done and see how the products work.
"At the end of the day, every country has to [make] its own decisions."
By the end of 2019, the Russian-based firm will have the transparency lab up and running in Zurich, with the facility storing and processing all information for users in Europe, North America, Singapore, Australia, Japan, and South Korea, with more expected to follow.
The source code of Kaspersky Lab products and software will be