Kaspersky Lab is the first big vendor to publicly rip up its contract with disgraced security reseller Quadsys in the wake of the hacking scandal that the company’s bosses recently admitted to.
On 22 July, Quadsys owner Paul Streeter, MD Paul Cox, director Alistair Barnard, account manager Steve Davis and security consultant Jon Townsend pleaded guilty to securing unauthorised access to computer material , contrary to section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
The five were charged in summer 2015 with hacking into a rival’s database to plunder customer information and pricing details.
Sentencing is set for 9 September but ahead of that, Kaspersky Lab has distanced itself from Quadsys, which was accredited as a Kaspersky Gold partner, the vendor’s top tier certification.
“One of the company’s key assets is its credibility in the eyes of its clients,” a spokeswoman at the Russian-headquartered antivirus business told us after we’d sent a bunch of questions to CEO Eugene Kaspersky.
“We are committed to business ethics and adhere to the highest standards of transparency in all areas of our business and as such, we have terminated our business relationship with Quadsys,” she added.
El Reg asked Kaspersky when it ripped up the contract but the company was unable to immediately confirm this.
Sophos, another company that awarded Quadsys a high-level certification, was less than forthcoming about its relationship with the reseller when we asked if it wanted to continue recommending customers buy from an organisation run by directors who hacked a rival.
The company told us “Sophos isn’t able to comment on this at this time”.
Sophos had actually promoted Quadsys to its platinum certification on 1 August, just nine days after the Quadsys Five pleaded guilty at Oxford Crown Court, according to Quadsys' own Twitter feed.
@quadsysltd are proud to announce they're a @Sophos Platinum Partner. Read our news online... https://t.co/FrdawrR7MV pic.twitter.com/ZQzDEp2h59
― Quadsys Limited (@quadsysltd) August 1, 2016Similarly, we put questions to Intel Security but have yet to hear back from head of PR for EMEA, Michelle Spencer.
We were unable to find Quadsys on Intel Security’s official ‘find a partner’ web tool which lists suppliers to buy from.
We are awaiting comment from Quadsys.