Antivirus vendor Kaspersky has officially begun withdrawing its offerings in the US, migration of existing users to UltraAV, which will go into effect on September 19, 2024, ahead of its official release at the end of the month.
“Kaspersky antivirus customers have received a software update that facilitates the transition to UltraAV,” the company said in a statement on September 21.
“This update has ensured that users will not experience a security gap after Kaspersky exits the market.”
Russian company that was banned from selling their software in the US due to national security concerns, said it is “working closely” with UltraAV to ensure security and privacy standards are maintained after the transition.
However, some users who encountered the update switched to Kaspersky forums and Redditclaiming that the Kaspersky software was automatically removed and replaced by UltraAV without notice.
UltraAV, in an FAQsaid that “all Kaspersky US users with a valid email address associated with their accounts have received an email detailing the migration process” starting on September 5.
However, it turns out that notification reportedly failed to explicitly state that software switching on user systems would be an automatic process.
“I used Kaspersky, but I didn’t know they were going to switch us to some rando (antivirus) in September,” one user wrote in a post on Reddit. “Almost had a heart attack when I started my PC today and found a program I hadn’t downloaded.”
American company UltraAV is part of the Pango Group, which also offers several other VPN apps such as UltraVPN, OVPN and VPN360. It advertises more than 25 million active users of its brands and more than 650 million lifetime users.
