Yevgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky (; born 4 October 1965) is a Russian cybersecurity expert who is the co-founder and the CEO of Kaspersky Lab, an IT security company with 4,000 employees. He was a cryptologist and officer in the Soviet army until leaving the service in 1991. He co-founded Kaspersky Lab in 1997 and helped identify instances of government-sponsored cyberwarfare as the head of research. He has been an advocate for an international treaty prohibiting cyberwarfare.

Kaspersky graduated from The Technical Faculty (cryptology) of the KGB Higher School in 1987 with a degree in mathematical engineering and computer technology. His interest in IT security began when his work computer was infected with the Cascade virus in 1989 and he developed a program to remove it. Kaspersky helped grow Kaspersky Lab through security research and salesmanship. He became the CEO in 2007 and remains so as of 2024.

Early life

Kaspersky was born on 4 October 1965 His father was an engineer and his mother a historical archivist. As a child he developed an early interest in math and technology. He spent his free time reading math books and won second place in a math competition at age 14. He was also a member of the Komsomol.

At the age of 16, Kaspersky entered a five-year program with The Technical Faculty of the KGB Higher School, which prepared intelligence officers for the Russian military and KGB. He studied how the virus worked Kaspersky Lab was founded three years later by Kaspersky, his wife and Kaspersky's friend Alexey De-Monderik. Natalya, who pushed Eugene to start the company, was the CEO, while Eugene was the head of research. In 2023, after switching to a subscription model, Kaspersky Anti-Virus became Kaspersky Standard and Kaspersky Internet Security was replaced by Kaspersky Plus.

Threat discoveries

As the head of research, He hired the researcher that identified the Stuxnet worm, which is believed to be the first instance of state-sponsored cyberweapon. Afterwards, the company exposed the Flame virus at the request of the International Telecommunication Union. The virus was believed to have been used for cyber-espionage in Middle-Eastern countries. In 2015 Kaspersky and Kaspersky Lab discovered a group of hackers known as Carbanak that were stealing money from banks. They also exposed Equation Group, which developed advanced spyware for monitoring computer use and was believed to be affiliated with the National Security Agency in the U.S. In early 2009, CRN said his personality contributed to the company's growth from "relative obscurity to now nipping at the heels of its larger, better-known rivals." At the time, Kaspersky Lab was the fourth largest endpoint security company. It introduced new products for the enterprise market and expanded its channel programs.

Kaspersky himself is the co-author of several patents, including one for a constraint-and-attribute-based security system for controlling software component interaction.

As of 2015, Kaspersky Lab employed more than 2,800 people.

Also during this period, Kaspersky expanded its cybersecurity offerings. In 2012, it announced plans to develop a secure operating system to protect critical infrastructure systems from online attacks. By 2023, the company launched SD-WAN and Kaspersky Container Security, contributing to a 44% growth in non-endpoint solutions.

The company faced geopolitical challenges, notably in 2017, when the U.S. government banned its software over alleged ties to the Russian government, which Kaspersky denied. In June 2023, it reported a cyberattack targeting its senior staff’s iPhones, which had been ongoing since 2019. In June 2024, following further U.S. sanctions, Kaspersky withdrew from the U.S. market, later replacing its software on American users' systems with UltraAV.

Despite these challenges, Kaspersky Lab maintains presence in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Latin America and expanded product range.

Fights against patent claims from non-practicing entities

Kaspersky Lab has defended itself against allegedly frivolous patent claims more aggressively than most IT companies. In 2012, it was the only one of 35 firms named in a suit by patent troll Information Protection and Authentication (IPAC) to take the case to court, rather than pay a fee. The case was ruled in Kaspersky's favor. Also in 2012, another company, Lodsys, sued Kaspersky and 54 other companies for patent infringement, and that case also resulted in the claimant dropping the case against Kaspersky.

In 2016, Kaspersky Lab faced a claim from the American company Wetro Lan, which alleged that the company had infringed US patent No. 6795918B1. This patent, obtained in 2000, described “service level computer security” technology related to data packet filtering. After brief negotiations, the parties agreed on a payment of $5,000 to Kaspersky Lab and the waiver of any future claims on their part.

In 2018, a Texas district court dismissed Uniloc's lawsuit against Kaspersky Lab for infringement of US patent 5490216.

According to an article in TechWorld, the company's aversion to settling these claims is most likely because Eugene "just hates" patent trolls. In his blog he called them "parasites" and "IT racketeers". Kaspersky aims not only to settle lawsuits, but to invalidate patents being misused by NPEs.

Views

Kaspersky is influential among politicians and security experts.

Many organizations have been considering reducing privacy to improve security as a result of Kaspersky's arguments.

Controversies

Affiliations with Russian intelligence

Kaspersky's alleged prior work as a GRU cryptologist and GRU officer in the Soviet army and his education at a KGB-sponsored technical college has led to controversy about whether he uses his position to advance Russian government interests and intelligence efforts.

Wired said Kaspersky's critics accuse him of using the company to spy on users for Russian intelligence. Russian telecommunications companies for example are required by federal law in Russia to cooperate with the government's military and spy operations if asked. Kaspersky said his company has never been asked to tamper with its software for espionage According to Wired, Kaspersky staffers argue "not unconvincingly" that spying on users would hurt its business and its relationship with the Russian FSB, the KGB's successor, is limited. NPR journalists also said it was unlikely Kaspersky was using its software for espionage, because it would be risky for the company's business, but said Kaspersky showed an unusual disinterest in Russia-based cybercrime.

In August 2015, Bloomberg reported that Kaspersky Lab changed course in 2012. Bloomberg and The New York Times According to News & Observer, Kaspersky "published a mammoth response, tearing down Bloomberg's accusations and accusing them of throwing facts out the window for the sake of a juicy anti-Russian narrative." Competitor FireEye said many U.S. IT companies also have executives that formerly worked for government military and intelligence agencies. NPR reported that Kaspersky has been doing an increasing amount of business with Russian cybersecurity agencies to catch cybercriminals. Kaspersky confirmed that Russian agencies are among its government customers. ABC reported that the Department of Homeland Security had issued a secret report in February on possible connections between Kaspersky Lab and Russian intelligence, and that the FBI was currently investigating the matter. According to Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) director Vincent Stewart, his agency is "tracking Kaspersky and their software." In a press release, Eugene Kaspersky denied that his software is currently, or could be, used for such purposes, stating that "As a private company, Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government, and the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyber-espionage efforts." He also stated that the US does not want to use his company's software for political reasons,

Alleging connections to Russian intelligence, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2017 banned Kaspersky's main antivirus product from U.S. federal networks. In 2024 the U.S. Commerce Department announced that "Kaspersky will generally no longer be able to, among other activities, sell its software within the United States or provide updates to software already in use."

Kaspersky is one of many Russian oligarchs named in the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA, signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2017.

Anti-virus spoofing

In August 2015, two former Kaspersky employees alleged that the company introduced modified files into the VirusTotal community anti-virus database to trick its rivals' programs into triggering false positives. The result of the false positives was that important uninfected files would be disabled or deleted. The allegations also claimed that Kaspersky himself had ordered some of the actions, specifically targeting competitors, including Chinese companies he felt were copying his software. Emails dated 2009, two years after Kaspersky became CEO, were allegedly leaked to Reuters, one of which allegedly had Kaspersky threatening to go after competitors by "rubbing them out in the outhouse", using a phrase popularized by Vladimir Putin. The company denied the allegations. He first made the list in 2015 when his net worth reached US$1 billion.

  • Lifetime Achievement Award 2010, Virus Bulletin
  • Strategic Brand Leadership Award, World Brand Congress
  • Most Powerful Security Executive, SYS-CON Media
  • Businessman of the Year, American Chamber of Commerce in Russia — 2011
  • Outstanding Contribution to Business Award, CEO Middle
  • Technology Hero of the Year, V3 — 2012
  • Top-100 Global Thinker, Foreign Policy Magazine — 2012
  • Top-100 IT executives, CRN.
  • Global High-Tech Award, Armenia - 2015

Personal life

Kaspersky lives in Moscow, Russia with his wife and five children. He and his first wife were divorced in 1998. The incident had an influence on Kaspersky's sense of personal security. He now travels with a bodyguard and security detail. He sponsors various "quirky or scientific projects" or archaeological excavations in Akrotiri (prehistoric city). Kaspersky owns a BMW M3. He supports university projects and competitions in the IT security field. He consistently shares travel photos and notes in his personal blog, and maintains the list "Top-100 must-see places in the world." and the first solo crossing of Antarctica by a woman (Kaspersky ONE Transantarctic Expedition) in 2011, also completed by Felicity Aston.

Eugene's company was the official cybersecurity partner for the FIDE World Championship series of chess tournaments.

Notes

References

  • Official biography