“Starting Thursday, Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky deleted its anti-malware software from customers’ computers across the United States and automatically replaced it with UltraAV’s antivirus solution.”
Kaspersky’s September emails to U.S. customers mentioned UltraAV but never said Kaspersky would be deleted. Users who tried to uninstall the replacement watched it come back after a reboot. UltraAV belongs to Pango Group, which also runs Hotspot Shield and Comparitech. The U.S. banned Kaspersky as a security risk, and Kaspersky’s parting gift was to prove it could push any software it liked onto your machine.