Security News > 2023 > January > Russians say they can grab software from Intel again

People in Russia can reportedly once again download drivers and some other software from Intel and Microsoft, which both withdrew from the nation after its invasion of Ukraine.

The situation, we're assured, is this: while Intel's website generally remains closed to netizens visiting from Russia, if those people can reach Intel's download portal from a search engine or some other place, they can now, once again, use that site even if they are in the land of Putin.

A month into the occupation and the chip-making giant stopped all sales in Russia, and in April that year temporarily halted all business operations in the nation, saying in a statement it was joining "The global community in condemning Russia's war against Ukraine and calling for a swift return to peace." At the time, Intel had 1,200 employees in Russia.

This week Intel said in a moderately cryptic statement that "Access to resources that meet driver update needs, such as the Intel Download Center and Intel Download Support Assistant, are part of Intel's warranty obligations." In other words, if you find yourself able to fetch stuff that you couldn't before, that's apparently why: warranty obligations.

Unnamed sources told Tom's Hardware on Friday that while Intel did block connections from Russia, the chipmaker restored access late last year to the Intel driver and support downloads portal.

Crucially, it seems people in Russia can't directly download drivers and other code from Intel; they have to use the automatic download tool.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/01/14/intel_microsoft_russia/