About KSN

Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) is an online service infrastructure that provides access to the online Knowledge Base of Kaspersky, which contains information about the reputation of files, web resources, and software. The use of data from Kaspersky Security Network ensures faster responses by Kaspersky applications to threats, improves the effectiveness of some protection components, and reduces the risk of false positives. KSN enables you to use Kaspersky reputation databases to retrieve information about applications installed on client devices.

If you participate in KSN, you agree to send to Kaspersky, in automatic mode, information about the operation of Kaspersky applications installed on client devices that are managed through Kaspersky Security Center Cloud Console. Information is transferred in accordance with the current KSN access settings. Kaspersky analysts additionally analyze received information, and include it in the reputation and statistical databases of Kaspersky Security Network.

The application prompts you to join KSN while running the Quick Start Wizard. You can start or stop using KSN at any moment when using the application.

You use KSN in accordance with the KSN Statement that you read and accept when you enable KSN. If the KSN Statement is updated, it is displayed to you when you update or upgrade Administration Server. You can accept the updated KSN Statement or decline it. If you decline it, you keep using KSN in accordance with the previous version of KSN Statement that you accepted before.

When KSN is enabled, Kaspersky Security Center Cloud Console checks if the KSN servers are accessible. If access to the servers using system DNS is not possible, the application uses public DNS servers. This is necessary to make sure the level of security is maintained for the managed devices.

Client devices managed by the Administration Server interact with KSN through KSN proxy server. KSN proxy server provides the following features:

• Client devices can send requests to KSN and transfer information to KSN even if they do not have direct access to the internet.
• The KSN proxy server caches processed data, thus reducing the load on the outbound channel and the time period spent for waiting for information requested by a client device.

You can enable KSN proxy server on the distribution point side to make the device act as a KSN proxy server. In this case, the KSN proxy service (ksnproxy) is run on the device.