Kaspersky Lab says it 'inadvertently' downloaded NSA hacking tools (Report)

Embattled security firm Kaspersky Lab said its antivirus software did download secret hacking tools from a US computer back in 2014, but deleted them after realizing the data was classified.

“The archive was deleted from all our systems. The archive was not shared with any third parties,” Kaspersky Lab said on Tuesday.

The Moscow-based security firm has been fighting accusations that its antivirus software helped Russian spies steal confidential files from the US National Security Agency. On Tuesday, Kaspersky Lab tried to clear the air, and said its antivirus software did indeed download the secret hacking files, but only because they were flagged as malware after an NSA contractor’s home computer was reportedly infected.

“US law tolerates inadvertent acquisition of classified data, but doesn’t allow to distribute it. We deleted it to follow the law,” the company’s CEO Eugene Kaspersky tweeted on Wednesday. The Russian security firm added: “Kaspersky Lab has never created any detection of non-weaponized…