Kaspersky announces it will close U.S. offices after Commerce Department ban

July 16 (UPI) -- Moscow-based software company Kaspersky Lab announced on Monday it was winding down operations in the United States less than a month after a product ban by the U.S. Commerce Department.

The antivirus developer, which has long pushed back on allegations that it aided the Russian government in cybercrimes, said it will lay off its U.S.-based workers and close its offices.

At its height, Kaspersky was a leading government-used antivirus vendor and conducted popular seminars around Washington. It has been operating in the United States for about 20 years.

In June, the Commerce Department under Secretary Gina Raimondo said it would ban Kaspersky Labs and its subsidiaries in the United States, charging that its products "posed an undue or unacceptable national security risk" to the country. The ban prevented Kaspersky and its subsidiaries from selling or providing updates on its products.

On the same day, the Treasury Department sanctioned Kaspersky and some of the company's leadership team, saying it presented a national security risk. The Kaspersky ban starts July 20 and U.S. customers will stop receiving updates to products on Sept. 29.

"The company has carefully examined and evaluated the impact of the U.S. legal requirements and made this sad and difficult decision as business opportunities in the country are no longer viable," Kaspersky Lab said, according to CNN.

Kaspersky founders built the company into one globe's best antivirus software companies after it was founded in Moscow in 1997. It was considered one of the world's leaders along with American companies McAfee and Symantec.