Kaspersky Antivirus Replaced by UltraAV? Here’s Why, and What You Can Do

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Go back 10 years, and you’ll find glowing reviews of Kaspersky’s Antivirus and security suite products by PCMag. Independent testing labs gave it top marks, and we at PCMag awarded it our Editors’ Choice award multiple times. Fast forward to today, and the picture is bleak. Kaspersky is totally banned in the US, and many of its users found themselves forcibly transferred to a new and unknown antivirus overnight How did we get here, and what should one-time Kaspersky aficionados do?

Kaspersky’s Golden Years

In 1997, a trio of Russian security researchers including Eugene and Natalya Kaspersky founded what came to be known as Kaspersky Lab. It took a while for Kaspersky products to reach the west, but once they did, they caught on, in no small part because they worked so very well. At PCMag we carefully note scores from independent antivirus testing labs around the world. In the 10 years for which we’ve archived such scores, Kaspersky aced 90% of them, earning the best available from each lab.

Our earliest reviews called out some flaws, but it wasn’t long before Kaspersky’s antivirus and security suite products came in with 4-star reviews, then 4.5 stars, then Editors’ Choice awards. With top scores from the labs and in our own hands-on testsKaspersky was riding high.

Rumors Creep In

Go back far enough, and you’ll find plenty of anti-Russian sentiment in the US, but the Cold War is over, right? We don’t have to worry about Kaspersky’s Russian origins. And anyway, it’s a global company now.

Or is it? In 2015, Bloomberg posted an article claiming that for years, Russia’s FSB had been placing agents in high-level positions within Kaspersky Lab and using their positions to advance Russian interests, even spying on customers. Eugene Kaspersky laughed off the articlecalling it sensational, but the damage was done.

By 2017, the US government had removed Kaspersky from its approved vendors list. Best Buy pulled Kaspersky from its shelves. Kaspersky even got blamed for abetting Russian interference in the 2016 election. We at PCMag examined the rumors and concluded that no hard evidence of malfeasance had been presented. On that basis, we continued to rate Kaspersky products on their (considerable) merits, but with a warning.

Kaspersky’s Reputation on the Skids

In February of 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, beginning a war that still rages and fuels anti-Russian sentiment. Credit card companies suspended operations in Russia. The US government went beyond merely removing Kaspersky from its approved list, actively forbidding federal agencies from using it. Even the security experts at HackerOne cut ties with Kaspersky Lab.

At this point, we took another look at our coverage of Kaspersky’s products. Scores from the independent labs remained excellent, as did scores in our hands-on tests. But with the overall increased level of suspicion against the company, we evoked the Editors’ Choice award for Kaspersky products and removed them from our “best of” roundups.

Surprise! You Have a New Antivirus

There was really only one outcome possible, and it came in June 2024. The US government announced a total ban on Kaspersky software in the US. The ban enjoins Kaspersky from selling its products, business or consumer, anywhere in the US. Businesses, in particular, would need time to switch away from those products, so the edict allowed several months of grace period. After September 29, though, Kaspersky could no longer provide updates or support for any products.

In theory, consumers could continue to use Kaspersky’s antivirus without antivirus updates or support, but that would be plain dumb. Kaspersky arranged with Pangoa company better known for VPN products than antivirus, to take over the million or so Kaspersky subscriptions in the US.

All existing Kaspersky subscribers received notification that the switch would happen but no details on exactly how or when. Those details became apparent starting last week, when many Kaspersky users woke up to find that the latest update deleted Kaspersky and replaced it with a combination of Pango’s UltraAV antivirus and UltraVPN, plus an identity protection component.

PCMag readers may be familiar with Pango’s Hotspot Shield VPN or the security and identity suite called Aura. Until recently, Aura and Pango were the same company, but they separated in early September of 2024.

According to our Pango contacts, users will receive licenses to install antivirus protection on 20 devices and VPN on 10, which is more generous than the Kaspersky licenses they had previously.

What If I Don’t Want UltraAV?

As mentioned above, Kaspersky was a shining security star for many, many years. Even when the company’s own reputation started to fade, the security products remained winners. Those who kept the faith with Kaspersky and got forcibly switched to UltraAV may quite reasonably wonder about their protection. None of the labs have published test scores for UltraAV, though scores may appear in the next few months. Our own reviews of UltraAV and UltraVPN are still in process.

Our Top Antivirus Picks

If you’re pinching pennies, you may want to ride out the remainder of your subscription with Kaspersky. There are other choices, though. Avast One Basic is free, and it’s a security suite of sorts, though limited compared with the higher-tier Kaspersky products. AVG Antivirus Free is a high-scoring standalone antivirus. Switching to one of these won’t incur any added costs. These two are our Editors’ Choice winners free antivirus tools.

Maybe you don’t have a long time left on your existing Kaspersky subscription, or maybe you’re just willing to pay for the best. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus holds perfect scores from three independent antivirus testing labs, with more features than some security suites. Norton AntiVirus Plus Likewise, it offers many suite-level features, and it gets excellent scores from all four testing labs we follow. You won’t go wrong switching to one of these Editors’ Choice antivirus utilities.