Kaspersky Lab Standard Support Policy (updated August 03, 2018)

The Kaspersky Lab Standard Support Policy is applied on a global basis. It describes the Standard Support Offering (Service) Kaspersky Lab provides to its Customers. Kaspersky Lab reserves the right to amend these Terms and Conditions and will publish updates at http://support.kaspersky.com/. Customers who have purchased additional support offerings are supported according to the conditions outlined in their agreement.

Customer shall mean a company (Corporate Customer) or an individual (Consumer) who has purchased Software under an active EULA and to which Kaspersky Lab provides support services. 

Freemium product shall mean a product which is provided free of charge but has additional functionality available on a paid basis. 

Incident shall mean a Customer-reported Application behavior event that is not part of the standard operation (according to the Software documentation) and which causes, or may cause, an interruption to, or a reduction in, the quality of service provided by the Application. 

License shall mean the right issued by Kaspersky Lab to a Customer to use its products in the Customer’s environment in accordance with the corresponding License Agreement. This right is generally provided on a paid basis and has an expiration date. 

Major Release shall mean the first commercially available version of a new Application. A major release is associated with switching to the next version number (e.g. from 14 to 15). 

Minor Releases shall mean all subsequent versions of an Application available after a Major Release. A Minor Release is associated with switching to the next subsequent minor version number (e.g. from 14.0.0 to 14.0.1). 

Patch shall mean any type of Application public update/upgrade which fixes Application errors and/or adds new functionality (maintenance packs, critical fixes, auto patches, manual patches). 

Prospect shall mean a company or an individual who uses a trial version of the Application under a valid trial License. 

Qualified answer shall mean any answer to the initiator that is made by an assigned specialist and contains the results of a preliminary analysis. If there is a lack of information in the initial request, this answer contains a request for all necessary information. Additionally, this request may contain an estimated resolution time, when applicable. 

Response time shall mean the elapsed time between the moment information about an incident is received and the moment the Customer is given a qualified answer (via support system, email or phone). 

Software or Application shall mean a piece of Kaspersky Lab software that the Customer has acquired, deployed and installed in accordance with the terms of the license agreement between Kaspersky Lab and the Customer. 

Support hours shall mean the days of the week and the times during the day that support services are provided under the Terms and Conditions. 

Support Team, Technical Support shall mean the Kaspersky Lab support technicians, including those of Kaspersky Lab subsidiaries or local service delivery partners. 

Update shall mean a release of new virus signatures or modified licensed application(s) which provides functional or performance improvements and/or incorporates new functionality and improvements.

Kaspersky Lab provides support services for supported versions of licensed Applications depending on the product type and License type and status:

1. All commercial and freemium products for Consumers are supported regardless of the License status
2. All commercial products for Corporate Customers are supported if their License is valid
3. Trial product versions are supported if their License is valid
4. Free products are not supported by Kaspersky Lab*
5. 
   

   * Free Kaspersky Lab products may be supported by community experts on the Kaspersky Lab Forum.

   The list below describes the support services Kaspersky Lab provides to the Customer as part of the Standard Support Offering:

6. Processing of application errors and incorrect behavior
7. Processing of errors and questions concerning regular database updates
8. Processing of malware-related incidents:
   1. False detections by the Application
   2. Undetected malware samples
9. Assistance in the recovery of lost or damaged license information (where possible)
10. Processing of “How-To” questions such as:
    1. How and where to download the Application
    2. Where to find information about the product such as in manuals and tutorials
    3. How to use the self-service portal, either My Kaspersky or CompanyAccount
    4. Basic installation questions
    5. Removal of a competitor product (if information is available)
11. 
    

    Kaspersky Lab has no obligation to provide support when and where:

12. Hardware and/or software are not compliant with the minimum system requirements of the Application
13. Application reaches its end-of-life
14. 
    

    Request types not covered by the Standard Support Offering include, but are not limited to, the following:

15. Performance improvements and Customer device tuning
16. Disinfection of malware-infected computers (including elimination of the after effects of malware infection)
17. Malware description requests
18. On-site support and remote support sessions*
19. Support outside of working hours
20. Questions related to the function of third-party applications or operating systems
21. Applying third-party patches to operating systems and applications, applying third-party vulnerability patches
22. Integration of Kaspersky Lab products with third-party software
23. Application configuration
24. Best practices network security configuration
25. Application training
26. Application demonstration, deployment or any guidance on its deployment
27. Application health checks and tune-ups
28. 
    

    * Remote support sessions are only conducted at the discretion of Technical Support.

    Some actions outside the scope of the Standard Support Offering may be offered as a separate paid service.

    Kaspersky Lab’s Support Team assists Customers on a “best-effort” basis, but cannot guarantee successful installation of an Application and successful remediation of malware or a malfunction in the following scenarios:

29. Malware is present and no anti-malware software is installed
30. A third-party anti-malware product is installed, but did not detect malware/disinfect the malware
31. Kaspersky Lab applications are installed in a mixed environment along with another anti-malware solution
32. Incidents caused by hardware
33. Incidents caused by non-supported platform software versions (i.e. beta software, versions of new service packs or additions not yet approved by Kaspersky Lab as compatible with the applications)
34. Problems for which the Customer cannot provide accurate information, reasonably requested by Kaspersky Lab’s Support Team to reproduce, troubleshoot and investigate the problem
35. Problems which arise as a result of unused or incorrectly used instructions from the Kaspersky Lab Support Team or Kaspersky Lab documentation which, if properly used, would clearly resolve the problem
36. Incidents caused by third-party software that is not supported by its vendors

Kaspersky Maintenance Service Agreement (MSA) gives you a choice of premium support programs that treat your IT security issues as high priority and help keep your business running smoothly. Our support programs are ideally suited to companies that depend on their IT infrastructure for business continuity and the ongoing delivery of mission-critical processes.

More information can be found here.

The availability and scope of paid services may vary for specific Kaspersky Lab subsidiaries and local service providers.

Actual support hours may vary for specific Kaspersky Lab subsidiaries or local service delivery partners.

Kaspersky Lab provides standard support services in English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Japanese and other languages supported by local subsidiaries and/or service delivery partners.

Local subsidiaries and/or service delivery partners will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide language support during regional business hours, based on available resources. A specific response time is not guaranteed within Standard Support. Commitments to a particular response time can be provided within extended technical support.

Kaspersky Lab will take commercially reasonable efforts to manage an Incident and address the Customer’s case according to the relative priority in the general queue of all Kaspersky Lab customer requests.
For Consumers, all Incidents have the same priority and are processed one by one in the order of their arrival.
For Corporate Customers, an Incident gets priority based on the following criteria:

1. “High” priority shall mean an Application problem which affects the Customer’s business continuity due to interruptions in the Application’s normal functioning and which causes the Application(s) or operating system to crash, or which causes data loss, changes default settings to insecure values, or security issues, provided that there is no workaround available.
2. “Medium” priority shall mean an issue which affects Application functionality but does not cause data corruption/loss or software to crash. A “high” priority level is re-classified to a “medium” priority level when a workaround is available.
3. “Low” priority shall mean a request for new functionality, or a service request, which does not affect Application functionality.

For Corporate Customers with extended technical support, incidents are prioritized and handled according to the terms of the extended technical support agreements.
All Incidents sent for resolution to Kaspersky Lab Technical Support will be assigned “pending” status while waiting for the Customer’s confirmation that it is resolved. If incident resolution is not confirmed within a specified period of time (varies for specific Kaspersky Lab subsidiaries) after information has been requested from the Customer or the resolution has been provided, the Incident is automatically considered resolved and then closed with corresponding notifications sent to the Customer.

Standard Support is delivered through the following channels:

1. Kaspersky Lab online self-service portal. The portal includes Knowledge Base and other application support information that the Customer or Prospect may use to find answers to common queries. The Knowledge Base contains articles which include application information, system requirements, and information regarding error and warning messages, as well as how-to articles and FAQs. The application support information is stored on the online self-service portal.
2. Kaspersky Lab online incident management tools. The Customer may use online incident management tools to log, track, update and close support cases online:
   1. My Kaspersky service for Consumers. The guidelines for My Kaspersky are available here.
   2. CompanyAccount service for business Customers. The guidelines for CompanyAccount are available here.
3. Phone. Availability of phone support varies for specific Kaspersky Lab subsidiaries or local service delivery partners.
4. Kaspersky Lab online Chat. Chat is available in certain countries*.

*For countries where support via Chat is available you can find a button “Live Chat” on the page with country contact info.

Kaspersky Lab Forum is a special channel where support is delivered by a community. Kaspersky Lab provides a platform for communication and knowledge sharing between community experts and Customers, and it cannot guarantee resolution of all the requests made via the Forum.

Kaspersky Lab provides different levels of support service depending on the phase of the Application support lifecycle. Support lifecycle consists of the following phases:

1. Full Support phase
2. Limited Support phase
3. Not Supported phase
4. End-of-Life
5. 
   

   Phases follow one another in the specified order. Limited Support and Not Supported phases may be omitted for some products at Kaspersky Lab’s discretion.
   The deliverables provided during each support phase are defined below:

6. Full support phase:
   1. Standard Support Offering
   2. Release of regular database updates. Regular updates for Kaspersky Lab software and databases in the Full Support phase ensure the most effective and complete protection
   3. Release of patches for the software (addressing confirmed Application problems)
7. Limited Support phase:
   1. Standard Support Offering
   2. Release of regular database updates in order to maintain a high detection rate
   3. No new patches are released for this software version during this phase unless a severe software problem is detected and acknowledged by Kaspersky Lab at Kaspersky Lab's discretion
8. Not Supported phase:
   1. Neither technical support nor new patches are available
   2. The only support service deliverable is partial database updates
9. End-of-Life:
   1. Neither Standard Support Offering nor patches are available for the software
   2. Releases of regular database updates for this software version are not provided
   3. Paid services cannot be purchased for this software version

The table below shows the support service deliverables available during different support phases. The actual deliverables for a specific application may vary.

* No new patches are released for this software version during this phase unless a severe software problem is detected and acknowledged by Kaspersky Lab at Kaspersky Lab's discretion.

Kaspersky Lab accepts no obligation to process incidents that concern Applications in the Not Supported phase or whose support cycle has ended. In such cases, the Customer will be advised to upgrade to a supported version of their Application.

The up-to-date lists of supported applications and their support phases are published at:

https://support.kaspersky.com/#s_tab2 – for Home products

https://support.kaspersky.com/#s_tab3 – for Small Business

https://support.kaspersky.com/support/lifecycle#b2b.block0 – for Business

Kaspersky Lab warrants the availability of support services for the application(s) in accordance with the License Agreement (the Agreement) and these terms and conditions. Additional services as well as extended technical support can be provided on a paid basis.

While working with the Support Team, the Customer should provide Kaspersky Lab with timely responses, information about the purchased License and any information that might be reasonably needed (logs, malware samples, etc.) as part of the remediation or Incident resolution process. Kaspersky Lab’s Support Team may also request that the Customer use additional Kaspersky Lab utilities whenever it is crucial for Incident resolution.

After an Incident is resolved, the Customer may be asked to complete a questionnaire on service quality.