Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based cybersecurity company, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Dec. 18 over the decision to ban Kaspersky Lab's software at government agencies, NPR reports.
Here are four things to know about the lawsuit.
1. In September, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ordered all government departments and agencies to discontinue use of and remove Kaspersky Lab products from computer systems within 90 days, based on concerns the company's programs contained back doors through which Russian intelligence could access computers the software runs on.
2. President Donald Trump signed the Homeland Security ban into law in early December, according to NPR.
3. Kaspersky Lab argued in the lawsuit the U.S. government deprived it of due process by banning its products. The lawsuit also alleges the ban violates the Administrative Procedures Act, which oversees how government agencies put regulations into place, and the Fifth Amendment, which necessitates agencies provide "substantial evidence" for certain regulatory decisions.
4. Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, released an open letter to Homeland Security Dec. 18. "DHS has harmed Kaspersky Lab's reputation and its commercial operations without any evidence of wrongdoing by the company," he wrote.
The letter echoes the company's previous statements concerning allegations of a link to the Russian government. In September, the company released a statement saying it "has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage or offensive cyber efforts, and it's disconcerting that a private company can be considered guilty until proven innocent, due to geopolitical issues."