Kaspersky and Kasperskaya. Included in Wired's list of the world's most dangerous people. Kaspersky published the book “Altai – Big Water”

This is the end of the 20th century, a century in which the development of technology aroused the interest of a number of very talented people and, wanting to prove to the whole world their superiority in computer world, they created the so-called computer viruses. The history of Kaspersky Lab began in that legendary time when “virus writers” were just taking their first steps, and viruses were distributed mainly on floppy disks.

At the end of 1989, the famous “orderly” of the computer world, Evgeniy Kaspersky, discovered the Cascade virus on his computer. This virus led to one of the first viral epidemics in Russia. Having created an “antidote” to the virus, Evgeniy Valentinovich acquired a taste for “medical practice” and still manages a leading company in the antivirus industry.

And already in 1991, Evgeny Kaspersky and his like-minded people (colleague developers) began working with computer company“Kami”, where the anti-virus department was created. Subsequently, Natalya Kasperskaya headed the department. With the beginning of her leadership position, Natalya began to lay the foundations for the future commercial success of the antivirus project. Under her leadership, the development of a partner network began.

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When we say Kaspersky, we mean antivirus. But we must not forget that behind a famous product there is a living person, with his own unique history and fate. Today, Evgeny Kaspersky is one of the world's leading experts in the field of virus protection. He is the author large number articles and reviews on the problem of computer virology, regularly speaks at specialized seminars and conferences in Russia and abroad. Kaspersky is a member of the Research Organization computer viruses(CARO), which brings together the most prominent experts in this field.

“A man-brand” is how Sergey Girdin, president of the Marvel group of companies, briefly and succinctly characterizes Evgeniy Kaspersky. No less vivid epithets were chosen for him by the general director of Croc, Boris Bobrovnikov: “Transnational monster...”.

Success story, Biography of Evgeny Kaspersky

Evgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky was born on October 4, 1965 in the city of Novorossiysk. Since childhood, the boy developed an interest in mathematics, which his mother noticed and began buying special books for her son. After a specialized mathematical boarding school at Moscow State University, Evgeniy graduated from the Institute of Cryptography, Communications and Informatics. This was in the late 80s. At that time, finding a job in this specialty was not exactly a problem, but at least a serious topic for thought.

And since by this time Kaspersky had already managed to start a family (not only a wife, but also two children), it was worth taking the choice seriously. As a result, the military area was chosen. The reason was two things. Firstly, the idea of instilling discipline in oneself seemed interesting, which the army definitely contributes to. Secondly, while still at school, recruiters from one extremely closed research institute of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces came to Evgeniy - and made the most pleasant impression on the young man.

However, the service did not promise mountains of gold, but I wanted to develop and move forward. Kaspersky tried to set up a part-time job at the same time, participating in the activities of a cooperative that was engaged in PC trading. But the idea was not crowned with success, if not to say it failed miserably. He never sold a single car. But he learned a valuable lesson from the situation: management and trade are not his element.

How a hobby turns into a source of income

It is unknown in what other areas he would have had time to try himself if not for the “Cascade” virus, which by chance appeared on his car in 1989. Having discovered the “disease,” Kaspersky was able to “dissect” the virus without any problems (however, it is unlikely that an average programmer would have been hired at a secret government research institute). Having disassembled the code into parts, he quickly made a program that eliminated the malicious effect. So, almost by accident - and certainly without thinking about it as the goal of his life - he wrote the first “medicine”. But one virus was followed by others.

“Why antiviruses? Once upon a time I just liked this direction, it hooked me. These are my “turtles,” if we draw an analogy with Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Cat’s Cradle.” Only, unlike the main character of this book, I’m unlikely to do anything else, since I’ll never get bored with this thing.”

Many craftsmen around the world in those years “got their hands on” the Internet, and while some were sowing something reasonable and positive, don’t feed others bread - let them do something nasty to their neighbor. In short, there was no shortage of computer infections. Evgeny became seriously interested in the malware, but still did not think about it as a source of income. He simply collected Trojans, viruses and the like, and in his spare time created “antidotes.” Essentially an ordinary hobby.

But the earth is full of rumors. Gradually people began to turn to him for help. At first, the “hack work” brought in little money, and orders were rare and small. Pair third party clients and the already mentioned cooperative - this is, perhaps, all with whom the future head of one of the largest antivirus laboratories in the world dealt. Of course, this situation prevented us from considering a promising future market area in this area of activity.

The signal to action was the first serious order. A large company developing a large software package wanted to include an anti-virus program in the package and turned to Evgeniy. At that time, this seemed almost impossible - the technologies were not the same, and, moreover, neither the customer nor the contractor had virtually any experience. The project seemed too monumental. However, trying is not torture. The contract was signed.

Although the resulting program was far from ideal, its development still brought in substantial money. A nice feature of this brainchild (pleasant for customers!) was the GUI, which competitors at that time could not boast of. MS-DOS still reigned almost everywhere, the command line was the working tool, and Windows was just taking its first timid steps “to the people.” It became clear that a hobby could easily turn into a job.

And fate, as if deciding to play it safe and fearing that the above-described case would be perceived as an exception that confirms the rule, threw Eugene another rather serious contract. Now we had a batch of computers on hand that needed to be equipped with protection. The job was done. The machines equipped with antiviruses sold well, again bringing in good earnings. This time, Kaspersky invested the money he earned in his first book, “Computer Viruses in MS-DOS,” publishing it himself. Now it has become completely stupid to deny benefits; a certain trend has emerged.

“When I started doing antivirus software in the early 1990s, I was able to secure 2-3 successful contracts. Thanks to them, I earned decent money for those times, with which I could buy a car or a VCR - then they cost about the same. But at some point I realized that if you think only about money and set your goal exclusively to earn money, then this will be the wrong path. You need to think about success, and the money will come by itself. Therefore, when I once again received a substantial amount (this was just on the eve of the so-called Pavlovian monetary reform), I bought several tons of paper with it and printed my first book. I didn't make any money from it, but I still think I made the right decision. I invested in my name, which over time became a well-known brand.”

What his hobby transformed into took more and more time. Kaspersky was actively interested in the topic, began attending various conferences and forums for software developers, writing articles, but he had to do everything in his free time. By the way, working in a secret research institute, it is difficult to conduct active public activities and speak at various events. I had to constantly discuss every moment with my superiors. It became clear that this could not continue for long. It was time to make a decision - either continue my military career, or quit and work closely on antiviruses.

AVP and Kaspersky Lab

The time was turbulent and incomprehensible, no one knew what would happen in the country in six months or a year, and the army at least guaranteed at least some kind of social security. « Everyone dissuaded me except Natalia , says Kaspersky. - But I was determined to leave " By the way, the jacket of Senior Lieutenant Evgeniy Kaspersky still hangs in the company’s office in a place of honor.

It must be said that it was very difficult for the young officer to leave the army. The dismissal procedure took about a year. Evgeniy did everything possible to part with the Armed Forces without conflicts. As stated in the dismissal order, he left the army due to service inconsistency. Colleagues laughed openly and asked: “In terms of service discrepancy in which direction?” Indeed, at that time, and his transfer to the reserve occurred in the spring of 1991, Evgeniy was considered the main “computer specialist” at his institute. For all questions related to software products, they turned to him. “Having taken off his shoulder straps,” Kaspersky decided to take a short vacation, but he couldn’t stay at home for more than two weeks. It didn’t take long to find a new job; there were several companies in mind. Evgeniy arranged a tender between three computer companies and on May 19, 1991 he went to work at technical Center"KAMI." Until this moment, the company was not involved in the development or sale of antivirus products; there was not even such a department. However, the head of the Scientific and Technical Center, Alexey Remizov, knew Evgeniy well (at one time Remizov taught at the KGB Higher School and taught one of the special courses to Evgeniy) and trusted him completely. An antivirus division was created especially for Kaspersky, which has already acquired a name and gained a certain authority in the computer world. At first, he was his only employee.

At first, the entire staff of the department was limited to Evgeniy himself. But he was given a full-fledged workplace, a computer and the opportunity to create. The time had come to make up for lost time, because what his then achievements were could hardly survive in a rapidly expanding market. Among domestic products then Lozinsky’s brainchild, Aidstest, was firmly in the lead; Well, Western monsters like McAfee and Norton AntiVirus, which appeared in 1992, left little room for maneuver.

Working tirelessly, 12 hours a day, without vacations and often without days off, Kaspersky set about creating his own antivirus, practically making his dream come true. Gradually, in addition to him, other specialists appeared in the department. Anti-virus databases expanded significantly. In a word, the process has begun.

By 1994, AntiViral Toolkit Pro (this is the name the project received) began to look relatively complete. It was no longer a shame to send him for testing to well-known universities and institutes, which Kaspersky was not slow to do (taking advantage of the connections he had previously developed). He sent ATP to the University of Hamburg, but when attaching the program to the letter, he accidentally mistyped it, naming the archive AVP.zip. According to tests, the development outperformed all competitors, detecting the largest number of viruses. At first, Evgeniy couldn’t figure out what other AVP people were sending him laudatory emails about. Only then did he notice the annoying typo, but it was too late to change anything - the program had already become famous under the “erroneous” name.

Also in 1994, after the triumph in Hamburg, the first contracts appeared. Immediately, right off the bat, foreign ones - with Italy and Switzerland. AVP was also sold through the KAMI Scientific and Technical Center itself, but the sales were simply ridiculous (not to mention the money raised).

“The first thing I planned when I started work was to make the best antivirus in the world. In 1994, we took first place in international software testing in Hamburg. Then it became clear that we were going the right way. Even if the project did not bring big money, we started it for a reason - it has become one of the best in the world. It was only at the next stage that I set out to create the number one company in Russia.”

In 1994, Natalya Kasperskaya joined her husband’s work, first working in the KAMI store, and then moving to the antivirus department itself, as a manager. She was entrusted with practically the main task at that time - to organize sales of the product.

In the ruins of what until recently was the Soviet Union, it was difficult to do business, and even more so in the IT business. Things weren't going well for KAMI in the best possible way, while Evgeniy’s department little by little acquired serious agreements and contracts. The affiliate network began to be built through trial and error. Particularly significant moments were the deal with 1C in 1996 and the agreement with the large Finnish company F-Secure on the use of the AVP kernel in their anti-virus products. Around the same period, Natalya started talking about creating her own company and separating from KAMI. At first, Evgeniy did not share his wife’s ideas, speaking out against it, but when everything at the Scientific and Technical Center became completely bleak, he gave up.

Thus, on July 21, 1997, the independent enterprise Kaspersky Lab was born. The wife again insisted that our hero’s surname should be used in the title. The public has already become accustomed to AVP as a product “by Eugene Kaspersky,” and Eugene himself was a well-known figure. Subsequently, the move with the choice of name fully justified itself.

“My ex-wife Natalya, having decided to save money, suggested calling the company after me, since I was already well known in Russia. In fact, I was categorically against it, but in the end I agreed and I think it was the right decision. Although it greatly reduces privacy. I had to become a kind of “steamboat man.” It's a funny feeling, it's hard to convey. I can’t say that I’ve gotten used to it; I involuntarily shudder when they say my name. I would not like Kaspersky Lab to be considered a company named after one person, although I understand that I play a significant role in it.”

Natalya headed the new enterprise. She took over the post of general director of the laboratory, leaving direct work on the project to her husband. And things went uphill. Already in 1999, the company’s first international representative office opened, and the share of the Russian market owned by “ Kaspersky Lab" increased sharply from 5% to 50%. The quality of the product, round-the-clock support for customers, which was a huge rarity at that time, and many other, smaller but important factors played a role. The former AVP, renamed Kaspersky Anti-Virus, was no longer inferior to its Western competitors.

“Oddly enough, I first felt like a wealthy person in the crisis year of 1998. At that time, we were already 80% an export company, and our partners paid almost in advance to support us. Therefore, unlike many on the market, we felt good and saw a very definite future. Although in fact the pockets were empty. That was the first time I realized that having real money is, by and large, unimportant.”

With the advent of the third millennium, we have come to “ modern history» JSC "Kaspersky Lab". Initially, Kaspersky Lab employed six people, but gradually it grew into an international group of companies with a head office in Moscow, ten foreign representative offices and a staff of more than 500 people (today more than 1,500 people work at the company’s Moscow head office alone).

At the beginning of 2002, the Laboratory expanded its scope of activities to protect users not only from viruses, but also from the entire range of threats information security. At the end of the year, users were presented with a personal gateway Kaspersky screen Anti-Hacker, designed to protect computer networks or individual nodes from unauthorized access, and the anti-spam system Kaspersky Anti-Spam. In 2003, the Kaspersky Lab team teamed up with the team of developers of the Romanian anti-virus system RAV. In the annual report “Analysis of the anti-virus protection market in Russia 2007-2008” of the Russian independent information and analytical portal Anti-Malware.ru, Kaspersky Lab took a leading position in the Russian market with a sales volume of $60.2 million and a market share of 45 percent

The company's scope of activity has long expanded and now covers not only personal computers, but also workstations, file and mail servers under almost any OS, PDA, etc. Kaspersky Anti-Virus has made a giant leap from the “one of many” category to the category of world leaders.

Kaspersky continues to do what he loves, studying viruses and keeping our computers safe. Today, without a shadow of exaggeration, he is one of the most significant and significant figures in his field. The word “expert” is more than appropriate.

Details of the Kaspersky Lab business

Forbes magazine found the company's IFRS financial statements for 2006-2010, as well as documents on transactions between shareholders, and identified 10 key facts about Kaspersky's business:

STRUCTURE. The parent company of the group is the British Kaspersky Labs Limited (KL), which owns Kaspersky Lab CJSC and distributors in different countries peace. Over the past few years, KL has been pursuing a strategy to acquire distributors. For example, buying your own distributor in Japan cost $120,000, and in America, according to reports, the distributor was bought from one of the directors of KL for only $10.

BUSINESS GROWTH. The company's revenue from 2006 to 2010 increased 8.6 times, to $462 million.

LARGEST MARKETS. Europe - 40%. EEMEA region (countries of Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) - 27%. Northern and South America - 21%.

“Russian software product manufacturers are afraid to enter foreign markets, they are simply afraid. They don’t understand the culture, they don’t understand how to do business. They don't speak English. Their foreign travel ends with Antalya once a year. I've talked to such people. I say: “Guys, the Russian IT and software market is pennies compared to foreign markets.” They say: “Well, yes. But we feel good here too.” This is a dead-end branch of development.”

MONEY. Thanks to its stable cash flow, KL has accumulated nearly $300 million, or nearly six annual profits. Kaspersky's company kept $213 million in bank deposits, and another $80 million in cash.

EXPENSIVE GROWTH OF COSTS. With sales growing by 40% in 2010, the main expense items increased by 1.5-2 times. Here are salaries, marketing with advertising, and even such a line as “travel and entertainment” (an increase of 2.1 times, up to $10 million).

INCENTIVENESS OF EMPLOYEES. One of the reasons for the sharp increase in costs was the launch in 2010 of a long-term employee incentive plan: the company allocated 5.3 million shares for this in 2010 alone. For the option program, the shares are priced at $8. The company allocates options in tranches - in June 2011, 2012 and 2013. The fair purchase price of the options for each of the tranches was estimated at $1.49 (2011), $2.18 (2012) and $2.7 (2013).

TOP REWARDS. The average number of company directors in 2010 was 7 people. Expenses for their maintenance are $2.78 million (compared to $4.26 million in 2009). The maximum remuneration for a director was $814,000. Salaries and bonuses of top management in 2010 exceeded $16 million (versus $8 million in 2009).

CHARITY. In 2010, KL donated $670,000 to orphanages and hospitals (versus $418,000 in 2009). The reporting emphasizes that the company did not make a single payment to political parties.

DIVIDENTS. In 2009 and 2010, the company paid $10 million in dividends.

SHAREHOLDERS. The appearance of the General Atlantic fund in the list of KL shareholders in 2011 came as a surprise. There was talk on the market that Kaspersky Lab was preparing for an IPO. But a year later, at the beginning of 2012, the company announced that the fund was leaving its co-owners. Having decided to understand the change in the capital structure of KL Forbes, he identified three main phases:

End of 2010. KL's capital consists of 95.3 million shares. The largest shareholders are Evgeny Kaspersky (about 57%) and the company Zerosta Holdings, according to our data, controlled by his ex-wife Natalya Kasperskaya (about 23%). Among the co-owners are technical specialists Alexey De-Monderik (over 10%) and Vadim Bogdanov (over 5%), who were at the origins of the company.
Beginning of 2011, entry into the capital of General Atlantic. Kasperskaya sells most of its shares (13.3 million out of 22.2 million) to the fund. The amount of the transaction is unknown, but based on transactions within the company at a price of $8 per share, the value of the sold stake can be estimated at about $100 million. In addition, KL issues 5.4 million preferred shares in favor of General Atlantic, which are valued at $75 million .
End of 2011, exit of General Atlantic, buyout of shares of other co-owners. The company acquires a stake in General Atlantic for about $200 million, with preferred shares valued at $65 million. At the same time, transactions are taking place with other shareholders. Kasperskaya sells 2.8 million shares for $28.7 million, De-Monderik - 2 million ($20.4 million), Evgeny Buyakin - 1.5 million ($15.3 million) and leaves his post executive director Kaspersky Labs, other minority shareholders - about 1 million shares ($10.5 million). Evgeny Kaspersky is also presenting some of his shares - their value is estimated at $62 million. total amount repurchase - $337.6 million. The repurchased shares are redeemed, reducing the capital to 68.2 million shares.

Based on the price of shares and their number until maturity, shareholders estimated the company's value at $1.03 billion.

According to KL documents, Natalia Kasperskaya was supposed to retain a stake in the company. But an official statement from Kaspersky Lab says that Kaspersky is no longer a shareholder. Calculations carried out by Forbes show that the block of shares sold by Evgeniy Kaspersky exactly coincides with the number of shares that should have remained with Kasperskaya. Apparently, the former spouses previously conducted a stock transaction between themselves. Thus, Evgeny Kaspersky’s share in KL exceeded 79%. Kasperskaya refused to comment on the details of the transactions, only confirming that it had completely withdrawn from the company's capital.

What is the reason for the change in the shareholder structure? The official message from Kaspersky Lab spoke of a revision of its corporate strategy. Kasperskaya, now no longer associated with the company, critically assesses the prospects for KL’s business: “ At one time, I convinced Kaspersky and other shareholders that it was necessary to attract external capital precisely for the purpose of purchasing businesses and technologies in new interesting areas. We even managed to attract an investor, but unfortunately, Kaspersky blocked the idea of development through acquisitions. Honestly, I don’t see drivers of new growth within the company that would give Kaspersky Lab the opportunity to grow organically faster than the market... However, I admit that I could be wrong and the company will find new opportunities for growth in other ways».

Personal life of Evgeny Kaspersky: hobbies and interests, family, everyday life...

Evgeniy loves Formula 1 in general and Scuderia Ferrari in particular. He is interested in kayaking, skiing, mountaineering, and also considers work to be his hobby: “For me, a hobby is a job, and work is a hobby...”.

“Everyday life doesn’t interest me at all. Only a certain level to feel comfortable - nothing more. I hate shopping - after half an hour in the store I get dizzy. I have a wife who, about once a year, makes a preliminary selection of goods, quickly brings me, quickly dresses me and quickly takes me away. I don’t care what kind of car I drive, the main thing is that it drives. I really love the car, I like to spend my holidays behind the wheel.”

One of his main hobbies is traveling: both on duty and simply out of love for long-distance travel, Kaspersky has visited various parts of the world, from Kamchatka to the South Pole, and regularly reports on his travels on the forum of his own Fan Club (kasperskyclub.ru) and on on his blog on LiveJournal (e-kaspersky.livejournal.com).

“I have compiled a list of the hundred most amazing places on the planet that you must see. I was up until five in the morning - I’m a keen person. I have already seen forty-two places out of a hundred. Moreover, thanks to business trips, which I often combine with tourist expeditions. It is curious that most of the sights that will take your breath away are located in China. From Russia there are seven on my list iconic places. This is St. Petersburg, especially in summer, on white nights, Red Square in Moscow, Kuzova Islands in the White Sea, where the energy is completely unreal, Lena Pillars in Yakutia, Altai, Baikal and Kamchatka.”

« I love chopping wood! Although this may seem strange to some, just lying on the beach is a pleasure I don’t understand. It's boring and a waste of time. A friend of mine who lives outside the city once sent me a photograph by e-mail - a pile of logs, and under it the caption: An exclusive form of outdoor recreation - preparing firewood. This kind of exclusive vacation is just for me. Just like fishing. A real man's activity. True, I can’t call myself an avid fisherman, but, like any normal man, this process is interesting to me. After all, fishing is, first of all, hunting, and a man is essentially a hunter. I was born in Novorossiysk, and from an early age, one might say, I watched every day how men returned from fishing. And my grandfather, a former journalist, was just a crazy fisherman and spent all his free time doing this activity. So I learned the basic fishing wisdom under his strict guidance. I caught my first fish in the Tambov region on the Vorona River. I think it was a pike. But I couldn’t eat it. Just a few minutes ago, she, alive, was fluttering and struggling... Over the years, of course, I have learned to treat the animal world more pragmatically. Once in Estonia, I even specifically went to catch trout so that I could cook and eat it right away. There was a restaurant where every customer who wanted to try a fish dish had to catch fish for themselves in the pond in the restaurant's courtyard.

It’s another matter when in Karelia I fished in natural conditions. When the catch exceeded all the limits of what was necessary, my friends and I declared a moratorium on fishing. And anyone who fished during prohibited hours had to immediately cook and eat the caught fish. Probably, my interest in fishing is not connected with hunting instincts, but with the opportunity to be in nature.»

In 1998, Evgeny Kaspersky divorced his first wife Natalya. Now he is married for the second time and has two sons from his first marriage. The eldest - Maxim, studies at the Faculty of Geography, the youngest - Ivan - at the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, both at Moscow State University.

“I divorced Natalya. Now we are friends and associates. We have a common business, common interests, but different families. When spouses get divorced, they often become bitter enemies. I do not understand this. Natalya and I treat each other with great respect, support each other, much like brother and sister, we have a joint business, we communicate well. Why create problems for yourself and others if you can avoid them? The principle that I declare is that when you leave, people should smile at your back.”

Natalya Kasperskaya about her sons - “The eldest son, Maxim, looks like me. He studies poorly, but is very inquisitive. His favorite book is the encyclopedia. He knows the name of the frog that lives in Australia and burrows two meters into the ground. At the same time, I open his notebook on the Russian language with a shudder. The youngest, Vanya, is a copy of dad. He studies well, is very ambitious, and must be the first in everything.”

Son kidnapping

On April 19, 2011, Ivan Kaspersky was kidnapped near the office of the Infowatch company, owned by his mother, where he worked as a programmer. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of 3 million euros from the Kaspersky family.

As it became known later, law enforcement officers identified the kidnappers of the 20-year-old son of Evgeniy and Natalya Kaspersky as the Savelyev family, consisting of the head of the family Nikolai (b. 1949), his wife Lyudmila (b. 1947) and their son Nikolai (b. 1981). R.). In addition to the Savelyev family, the group of kidnappers included two friends of Nikolai Jr., each 29-30 years old. Later it became known that they were talking about Alexey Ustimchuk (captain of the FSO) and Semyon Gromov.

The attackers searched for a potential victim on the Internet to receive a ransom. Their choice fell on Ivan Kaspersky after they discovered his home and work addresses on his VKontakte page.

In an interview, Natalya Kasperskaya said that her son was not tortured and was kept handcuffed and locked in a bathhouse. The kidnappers constantly changed the phone numbers from which they made ransom calls. While law enforcement agencies were busy freeing the young man, she and her husband sat in a separate room on Petrovka and waited for the kidnapper’s call. On the last day, the criminal did not get in touch, and Kaspersky learned that it was all over only after the information appeared in the media.

By official information Central Internal Affairs Directorate, Ivan Kaspersky was released from the hands of the kidnappers only on Sunday, April 24. The kidnappers were given a meeting to hand over the ransom in Moscow, where the entire Savelyev family and one of their accomplices went. The cars in which they were traveling were stopped to check documents, and the attackers were detained. At the same time, another capture group entered the territory of the garden farm where the prisoner was kept. Ivan Kaspersky was discovered in the bathhouse building, where he was guarded by another accomplice of the Savelyev family.

The release was carried out as a result of a force operation by employees of the FSB, MUR and special forces. The operation in the Sergiev Posad area “took place without a single shot being fired.”

“The criminals acted harshly; there were no threats during telephone conversations, except for one time when the main attacker said that he did not want to take sin on his soul, which was a signal that, in general, they could take any action.” , Kaspersky said later.

“The crime was real, my son was captured on the street, all his clothes and everything that was with him were taken away, and he was dressed in some kind of robe. He was kept, as far as I know, handcuffed in a dark bathhouse for five days. He didn't even know how many days he spent there. Well, naturally, he has lost weight, so now we are sending him to rest and fatten up." , Kaspersky said on April 27, 2011 in the “Live Broadcast” program on the Russia-1 TV channel.

Later, Evgeny Kaspersky stated that this incident directly affects the image of Russia, which strives to be innovative. Evgeny Kaspersky thanked the intelligence officers and noted their professionalism. “I was truly amazed by the professionalism that I saw in the actions of the workers of Lubyanka and Petrovka. Many thanks to them" , - he said.

Awards, merits and achievements of Evgeniy Kaspersky

In 2001, he organized the opening of the annual Virus Bulletin conference, a central event in the antivirus industry.
In 2007, Kaspersky received the Symbol of Science medal.
On June 4, 2009, Evgeny Kaspersky was awarded the State Prize Russian Federation in the field of science and technology “for major achievements in the field of modern computer information security systems.”
On June 12, 2009, Evgeny Kaspersky, as determined by the Council on Science, Technology and Education under the President of Russia, became a laureate of the State Prize in the field of science and technology and received an award of five million rubles. He directed all the funds received to the development of the Moscow specialized physics and mathematics boarding school No. 18 named after A.N. Kolmogorov, where he studied.
On September 29, 2009, Evgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky received the National Friendship Award of the People's Republic of China for his “contribution to the development of the Chinese information security industry.” And on the same day, he received another friendship award from the Heihe River (a city in Northeast China, located on the banks of the Amur River, opposite the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk) - a sign of honor for foreign specialists who have made a significant contribution to the economic and social development of the city.
Since 2009, Kaspersky has been a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, and since August 2010, a member of the Advisory Scientific Council of the Skolkovo Innovation Center.
In 2010, he received the title “Executive of the Year” from SC Magazine Europe and in the same year he was included for the first time in the ranking of Russian billionaires by Finance magazine, where he took 129th place (No. 139 in the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia 2012).

In December 2012, the American magazine Wired included Evgeniy Kaspersky in the list of the 15 most dangerous people in the world, placing him in eighth place. The first three places in it are occupied by the head of the Iranian special forces, General Qasim Soleimani, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman.

Wired motivated the inclusion of Kaspersky in the rating of “dangerous people” by the work of the “Laboratory” he heads to neutralize the Stuxnet, Flame and Duqu malware, with the help of which industrial and government facilities were attacked in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as his rhetoric in favor of restrictions Internet freedom.

« Recently, the United States waged an online campaign to spy on and counter Iranian nuclear scientists. However, cybersecurity experts exposed each of Washington's projects that used malware, rendering Stuxnet, Flame and Duqu useless. Many of these specialists work for Evgeniy Kaspersky, a Russian tycoon in the computer security, running one of the largest and most qualified antivirus companies in the world", wrote Wired.

Flame was discovered in 2012 on hard drives of the Iranian Ministry of Oil Industry, which were transferred to Kaspersky Lab at the request of the UN. Flame operated in Iran and other countries of the Middle East, infecting the computers of government agencies, private companies and ordinary users. Some of Flame's capabilities are amazing. Let's say one of the modules turned on the microphone of the infected computer and secretly recorded everything that happened around it. Another module, using Bluetooth, scanned the space in search of nearby phones, downloading all available information. And when I opened the email client, Flame started taking screenshots every 15 seconds. All stolen data was sent through secret channels to the hackers’ servers. Flame is similar to the Stuxnet and DuQu viruses (discovered in 2010), which were responsible for disabling centrifuges at the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which set back the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program several years ago.

Noah Shachtman, who authored the chapter dedicated to Evgeniy Kaspersky in the “list of the most dangerous people,” writes: “ If the only thing Kaspersky did last year was interfere with American efforts to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions, he would already have earned himself a place on the list of the world's most dangerous people, but Kaspersky has other complaints. A longtime ally of Russia's intelligence services, he provides technical expertise for the FSB, the successor to the KGB, whose agents he trains in computer forensics. When Kaspersky's son was kidnapped, the FSB came to his aid».

The second reason for including Kaspersky in the rating was its position on Internet control: “ Kaspersky said there was “too much freedom” on the Internet and supported additional government control over social networks, which he partly blamed for the kidnapping of his son. A few months later in Russia it was adopted new law, which bans many categories of websites and obliges Russian telecom companies to introduce new ways to spy on users. Now Western intelligence agencies are racking their brains over whether Kaspersky experts acted independently when they thwarted the malware attack on Iran, or did they do it with the help of the Kremlin?“- Shachtman is interested.

Why people like Shachtman are surprised by the fact of cooperation between Russian citizens and their government agencies and top officials of the state is unclear. And given the fact that Kaspersky is a senior lieutenant in the Ministry of Defense, the journalists’ claims generally look somewhat ridiculous.

On June 18, 2009, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting of the commission on modernization and technological development of the Russian economy at the Kaspersky Lab office. Evgeny Kaspersky himself also took part in the commission meeting, who made a report to its participants on the topic of Russian software production. The head of the laboratory gave the president a tour, showing the head of state the server room, the “iron room” where antiviruses are tested, as well as the virus laboratory where virus analysts manually catch viruses. The President considered the Laboratory’s office “interesting and modern.”

The biggest guests already in the new office of Kaspersky Lab, which is located in the north-west of Moscow, were the Secretary General of Interpol, comrade Ronald Noble, and the head of the new cyber division of Interpol, Noboru Nakatani, who just yesterday visited Evgeniy Kaspersky on a friendly unofficial visit. Evgeny Valentinovich spoke about this from the pages of his blog (eugene.kaspersky.ru).

Probably, the main secret of Kaspersky’s success can be considered that he madly loves the work he does and considers his work his hobby - “You have to decide at school, somewhere in the middle grades, what is interesting, what really makes your eyes light up, what you would like to do outside of class time. Technology, beekeeping, forestry - whatever. The main thing is that it is yours. I don’t know how else you can feel happy. Option one: be yourself.”

The statements of Evgeniy Kaspersky will reveal the secrets of his success:

“I was lucky - my mother recognized my passion for mathematics when I was still a child. This has shaped my life in many ways. I started studying science seriously at a physics and mathematics school. It was great there. I didn’t want to go back to regular school, so I had to study hard. Then I entered the Academy of Cryptography, where I also had to work really hard so as not to be kicked out. And I worked hard - with passion, it was all terribly interesting to me! Talent is talent, but to achieve success, you need to know the equipment. After school choose educational institution more difficult - and forward."

“Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, don’t be afraid to experiment, don’t be afraid to work hard! It’s possible that you won’t succeed, it’s possible that circumstances will be stronger than you, but then if you don’t try, you’ll be bitter and offended because you didn’t dare. If you try, you have two options: either it will work or it won’t. And if you don’t do anything, there’s only one option.”

“Today I am a kind of walking brand person. I won’t hide that the meaning of my life is expansion, I want to fill the whole world with my products. I like to conquer new territories. Success turns me on. It’s a completely normal desire for any man.”

“My theory of correct behavior: I call it “the rabbit under the tree.” There are two options for behavior: the first is for the rabbit to sit under the tree, [the second] is for the rabbit to run fast. So, if you are sitting under a Christmas tree, you have only one option, someone will find you and fuck you. If you run fast, you have [more] two options: either someone faster will catch up with you and fuck you, or you will find someone sitting under the tree. Here are business secrets from Evgeny Kaspersky" -

“Lee Kuan Yew is the man who built Singapore. He was able to turn into a pearl a state that was in a state of ruin and had the most deplorable appearance. And he achieved this using rather harsh methods. In some situations, harshness is justified, because softness cannot achieve such impressive results. If you are kind, they will sit on your neck and force you to go in the wrong direction. But this is the case with the state. If we talk about the company, everything is more complicated. Neither democracy nor harsh despotism works. We need a golden mean.”

Evgeniy Kaspersky is an adherent of a collegial, exclusively democratic leadership style with maximum delegation of authority - “I’ve never been involved in day-to-day management. I don't like this. My task is to indicate the direction to the locomotive, i.e. delegate authority correctly, and ride in front on a white horse with his head held high. Next, the task of the driver and his assistants is to make the locomotive run along the rails along a given path. Success is a locomotive that pulls a cart. And if things go well, there will always be enough coal in the cart for the fire. I have never had any doubt in my life that I was doing the right thing.”

“The opportunity to retire has arisen many times in my life. One day I was offered a move to a higher paying position at another antivirus company. Then there were persistent requests to sell Kaspersky Lab. But why do I need this? The idea of getting rid of a business, buying a desert island, sitting on the shore and throwing coconuts at sharks does not appeal to me.”

“It also comes down to the specifics of our business. No matter how terrible the crisis may be, even when the economy is going badly, no one will give up computers. The car breaks down - change to public transport. If your laptop breaks down, you buy a new one, because you can’t live without a computer. And at the same time, it needs to be protected from viruses and other troubles, otherwise it will sooner or later stop working.”

“My attempts to learn to read e-books ended in failure. I can not. It doesn’t work out - that’s all. I need a paper book, bound, and not a soulless piece of hardware with a touchscreen. I can't help it. It's hard to explain, just like why I don't wear suits and ties or why I've been using the same phone model for years. I'm probably a very conservative person - but not when it comes to technology and business. Name me at least one company that employs top-level experts who are qualified in both the technical field and PR. And that’s exactly what we have.”

“What was dreamed about and what ultimately came true are two big differences. But that doesn't bother me. I'm happy with how everything turned out. Now I am able to finance bold promising projects, which are designed for long term. I speak from high stands. But there is also another side to the coin. I can’t afford to drop everything and go on vacation from February to June and from September to December, when the hardest time in our business begins.”

“For me, money is the freedom to think more about the future than the present, the freedom to experiment.”

“Do I still have an unfulfilled dream? Of course, not alone. If we talk about business, my dream is for my company to be included in the ranking of the 100 most valuable brands in the world. I want to go to space, go to Antarctica again. The wish list is updated regularly. I believe that if a person has not decided on what what is happiness and stopped dreaming, which means he committed spiritual suicide.”

“Having made a mistake, I admit my guilt. It's easier to live this way. This is generally the most correct thing a leader can do. His authority in the eyes of his subordinates is only growing. After all, the employees already know everything, so why hide the pig in a poke? I'm not afraid to be wrong. If a manager not only evaluates achievements, but also boldly admits mistakes, employees will whisper less behind his back.”

In order to make a brand, it is clearly not enough to simply name the company by your name. Kaspersky Lab set out on a long and difficult voyage and there were many dangers ahead. How did the name Kaspersky become a brand? This is how Evgeniy Valentinovich himself speaks about it:

“It happened very slowly, it took us years to gain a good reputation, first in the Russian and then in the world market. We just always tried to take a responsible approach to personnel search and make products much better than others. This did not always work out, but sometimes it did, and the further it went, the more often. When we started our independent business, our products occupied only 5-10% of the Russian market. Only specialists and experts knew us. Year after year, the company's products and services gained recognition among the masses, and this was different in different countries. In Russia, we were initially known better, and our brand was well received by states close to Russia - the Baltic states, Ukraine, Israel, where 1/6 of the population came from our country. It was difficult to break into the English market due to British conservatism and a very cautious attitude towards new products - it took almost five years of hard work for the Kaspersky brand to begin to be recognized in this market. It was easier in France and Germany; people there are more receptive to new technologies and really value the quality of the product. In the USA and Japan, we are still almost unknown as manufacturers of finished products, although Kaspersky Lab has long been selling its technologies used in programs of local companies in these countries.

At first there was no strategy, they only thought about surviving and tried different ways to enter new markets. The standard strategy that many of our competitors use is this: a company office opens in a new country, $1 million is invested in advertising campaign, advertising messages appear on the pages of every computer publication. But often this does not work: a year passes, the advertising budget runs out, advertising in the press disappears - and everyone forgets what kind of product it is.

Kaspersky Lab took a different path - from experts to mass users. We first prove the superiority of our technologies to the people who understand them well - the technology partners who embed our functional modules into your products. Then we offer the finished product to other categories of users, and begin working with Internet providers. Through providers, the company reaches small and medium business and to large corporations, and over time, home users are also connected.

We use standard promotion tools: we organize press conferences, PR tours, promotions, exhibitions, etc. In some cases, we entered the market immediately ready-made solution, a product - this turned out to be much more difficult than starting with technology licensing. What was missing was not so much money as human resources - in order to conquer the whole world, you need a lot good people. Now we have already penetrated almost all the markets that interest us, and there is no need to invent new strategies.

Kaspersky is, first and foremost, the highest level of anti-virus protection for millions of users around the world. Moreover, its properties extend not only to our finished products, but also to the technologies we license. Kaspersky Lab is an example of a Russian technology company that has managed to build a business from scratch not only in Russia, but also abroad. The brand is based, firstly, on my ability to foresee the situation, because I sometimes guess trends in the viral world, trends computer threats, and we manage to respond to them in time - faster than others. The second is the ability to come up with technologies that help us catch computer viruses better and faster. Third is the ability to assemble a team. And finally, just luck."

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Evgeny Kaspersky is a Russian computer genius, brand man, billionaire, programmer, information security expert, who created the international company Kaspersky Lab, which deals with IT security, has more than 30 regional representatives and sells software in more than 200 countries.

Evgeniy is the main owner and director of the Laboratory, a member of the Organization of Computer Virus Researchers. Kaspersky regularly publishes articles and reviews about viruses.

Evgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky was born in Novorossiysk on October 4, 1965. Evgeniy was the only child in the family. The boy's parents had nothing to do with programming. His father worked as a design engineer for cement plants, his mother as a historian-archivist.

Evgeniy studied at a school in the city of Dolgoprudny near Moscow. Since childhood, Evgeniy showed interest in mathematics. This interest was happily supported by the boy’s mother, buying special books for the child. In addition, Kaspersky attended a special course in mathematics.

Studying at school and self-education gave brilliant results in 1980. Evgeniy wins the Mathematical Olympiad, and the boy is enrolled in the Physics and Mathematics Boarding School named after A.N. Kolmogorov at Moscow State University.

In 1987, the guy graduated from the KGB Higher School and received a degree in mathematical engineering.

Programming

Having become proficient in mathematical science, cryptography and computer technology, in the same 1987 Evgeniy Kaspersky got a job at a multidisciplinary research institute under the USSR Ministry of Defense. In this job, a programmer studies and analyzes computer viruses.

Kaspersky’s success story was not overnight; over the course of ten years, the programmer established his name with projects in the field of anti-virus OS protection before he organized his own business.

In 1989, Evgeniy Valentinovich develops a utility to cure a system from the Cascade virus.

The process of creating utilities interested the programmer, and Evgeniy delved into the work. Already in 1991, Kaspersky was employed at the KAMI Information Technology Center. There, Kaspersky heads a group of highly specialized specialists who are developing “medicines” for computer viruses.

In 1992, programmers led by Evgeniy Valentinovich presented the first product - AVP in version 1.0. The test laboratory of the University in Hamburg confirms the quality of the program in 1994. This is how the Kaspersky product earns its first international popularity. Foreign companies became interested in the group’s work.

"Kaspersky Lab"

In 1997, a Russian programmer takes a big step towards success - Kaspersky Lab appears. Evgeniy Valentinovich and his colleagues are creating a company. Kaspersky did not want to highlight his name, but his wife insisted on it. Natalya Kasperskaya was also among the co-founders of the new company.

Evgeny Kaspersky founded Kaspersky Lab

In the same year, an Internet portal launched by Kaspersky Lab appeared - SecureList, which is an encyclopedia of viruses, vulnerabilities, errors and malicious objects. The portal is periodically updated, has Russian and English pages, is developing and is still working today.

In 2000, the brainchild of the AVP company took on the name of its creator. The product is still known by this name - “Kaspersky Anti-Virus”. Until 2007, Evgeniy Valentinovich led the research, and then served as general director. Today main office The laboratory is located in St. Petersburg.

Kaspersky is one of the world's most famous experts in the field of information security and anti-virus protection.

World recognition

In 2012, Kaspersky rightfully takes pride of place in the ranking of the most influential thinkers of the year according to Foreign Policy. Oddly enough, among the Russian names on the list, the businessman is second only to the Pussy Riot group.

But the American Wired assigns Kaspersky number 8 in the top ten most dangerous people in the world. There is no noise without fire, because Kaspersky contributed to the exposure and neutralization of the American cyber espionage program in the Middle East.

Kaspersky's success and influence have not gone unnoticed by spiteful critics and Internet trolls. In some sources, the programmer was declared an FSB general working in a front IT organization engaged in collecting personal information of users, in others - a hacker, writing viruses and commercial cyber terrorism to create demand for the Laboratory’s security products.

Kaspersky Lab, according to the creators, does not use money from outside investors, the company is independent, and its own profit turnover is sufficient for the development of the Laboratory. The company's press center calls rumors about connections with intelligence agencies slander. Kaspersky himself does not comment on rumors, does not advertise his party affiliation and relationships with authorities, and sees one of his missions as follows: he is a warrior on the front line in a cyber war, where computer viruses play a destructive role.

Kaspersky also advocates “transparency” on the Internet, the programmer is against anonymity and believes that if each user is identified, the “web” would become safer. Kaspersky believes that future Internet users should receive a special passport and pass an exam similar to the driver's license exam.

Evgeny Kaspersky proposed the concept of dividing the Internet into zones

Evgeniy simultaneously supports freedom of speech. Kaspersky proposes a new concept of dividing the Internet into three zones: in the “red” zone, which contains online banking, government services and even voting in elections online, Internet passports are required; in the “yellow” zone associated with age restrictions, as planned by Kaspersky, only authorization is required for parental controls; in the “green” zone - blogs, news sites, social networks and other resources that ensure freedom of speech - no authorization is required.

Personal life

Evgeniy Valentinovich was married 2 times. The first wife is Natalya Kasperskaya, co-founder of the Laboratory. The couple divorced in 1998. According to Kaspersky, soon after the divorce, the programmer married a Chinese woman. After the first marriage, two sons, Maxim and Ivan, remained; the children grew up in a bilingual environment and speak fluent Russian and Chinese. The eldest son Maxim was not inspired by his father’s work, choosing the Faculty of Geography at Moscow State University.

In 2011, the youngest son Ivan Kaspersky became a victim of the family's wealth - the boy was kidnapped near the metro. The criminals demanded 3 million rubles for the boy’s life. The kidnapping ended with the capture of the attackers thanks to a special operation by the MUR and the task force.

As for Kaspersky’s ex-wife, the former spouses communicate and even sometimes vacation together, each with a new family.

Among Evgeniy Valentinovich's hobbies are skiing, hiking, kayaking, photography and racing. The programmer loves extreme sports, despite his age and unathletic physique. Kaspersky follows Formula 1 racing and even collaborates with Ferrari.

His passion for skiing led to Kaspersky meeting his second wife.

Evgeny Kaspersky is fond of Formula 1 racing

The wife works at the Russian Language Institute named after. Kaspersky characterizes his wife as smart and delicate. Evgeny generally values intelligence and character traits such as gentleness in women.

The hobby of the businessman and developer is the “Kaspersky Blog”, in which Evgeniy Valentinovich talks about cybersecurity and the work of the company. The blog also contains photographs of beautiful places, interesting events from the life of this integral, self-confident person. Except text blog Evgeniy maintains an account in Instagram.

State

Kaspersky's fortune in 2016 was estimated at $1.1 billion. In the list of the richest businessmen in Russia, according to the Forbes rating, Kaspersky ranks 86th.

Kaspersky's company cooperates with law enforcement agencies. In June 2016, Kaspersky Lab played key role in search of 50 hackers from the Lurk group.

In December 2016, an investigation began under the article of “high treason” against Kaspersky Lab employee Ruslan Stoyanov and the head of the unit of the Information Security Center of the FSB of the Russian Federation Sergei Mikhailov. The Laboratory does not deny the arrest of the employee, but emphasizes to the media that the charges relate to the period when Stoyanov was not yet working at the company. In 2017, journalists received information that the case was fabricated due to internal conflict in the intelligence services.

At the end of 2016, Evgeny Kaspersky filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the authorities of the European Union and Russia, and called the company’s behavior lawlessness in personal blog. The cause of the conflict between the two companies was a change in Microsoft's approach to third-party software. New operating system replaces user-installed programs, including antiviruses, with analogues produced by Microsoft. Kaspersky provided evidence that the proposed analogues in the field of information security are much worse than the Laboratory’s products, which means that the user is in danger due to the fault of Microsoft.

Currently, Evgeny Kaspersky is one of the world's leading experts in the fight against cybercrime. They call it a thunderstorm computer hackers, as well as “a man who saves the world every day.” In the ranking of the richest and most influential people in Russia, a separate place is always “reserved” for him. But what is the life and destiny of this person?

The answer to this question is known only to a few. Evgeny Kaspersky remains a mystery to many. His name (or rather his surname) is clearly associated with the complex of computer programs he developed. But what do we know about him as a person? Today we will try to collect all the reliable facts from the life of Evgeniy Kaspersky within the framework of this article.

Origin of Evgeniy Kaspersky

Evgeniy was born in Novorossiysk and became the only child in his family. His father worked as an engineer at a brick factory, and his mother held the post of archivist there. In many ways, it was she who predetermined the entire future fate of the future famous programmer. As Kaspersky himself recalls: “My mother quickly noticed that I loved mathematics. And she slipped me a lot of books on mathematics.” A few years later, it was she who took her son to an optional physics and mathematics school, and then (after moving to the Moscow region) to a physics and mathematics boarding school at Moscow State University. Here the future programmer learned the basics of practical sciences and also engaged in self-education. A peculiar result of all this was admission to the Institute of Cryptography, Communications and Informatics at the KGB Military Academy. After graduating, Kaspersky went to serve. A few years later he would return home with the rank of first lieutenant.

Evgeniy Kaspersky: “Apple will not withstand competition”

First steps in programming

According to the official biography of Evgeniy Kaspersky, the programmer began studying computer viruses in 1989. It was during this period that the now famous programmer had his first Personal Computer. However, it soon became clear that the PC was infected. It is worth noting that at that time computer viruses were still very rare. In addition, most of them were very primitive. Therefore, dealing with them was not so difficult.

“I disinfected my computer - I don’t remember with what program,” Kaspersky recalls. “But I saved one virus on a floppy disk. I was curious how it worked." As it later turned out, this virus turned out to be the “Cascade 1704” program. Having figured out its device,

Kaspersky wrote his own utility designed to treat it. As the programmer himself notes, all this was done purely out of curiosity. However, the Research Institute of the Air Force General Staff became interested in spontaneous development.

Some time later, one of his then colleagues appeared in Kaspersky’s office and brought another virus on a floppy disk, inviting the programmer to write a program to eliminate it. “I dealt with him. I became interested - and away we went,” Evgeniy recalled many years later.

In 1991, the future famous programmer joined the KAMI Information Technology Center, where, together with a group of colleagues, he continued to work on a number of anti- virus programs. Evgeniy Valentinovich will work in this organization until 1997. One of the results of his work will be the famous Kaspersky Anti-Virus.

Recognition and further career of Kaspersky

Soon, the program developed by Kaspersky to protect your computer from viruses became one of the most popular in Russia and the CIS countries. Critics noted the high level of protection, and buyers from various companies willingly installed the new product on their computers. Soon, Evgeny Kaspersky began work on a number of new versions of the program, which were also a great success.

Soon, Kaspersky Lab, founded in 1997 by a small group of like-minded people, turned into large company with head office in Moscow and representative offices in various parts of the world. Currently, Kaspersky is one of the world's leading experts in the field of virus protection. He is the author huge amount articles and publications devoted to the problem of computer virology.

In addition, Evgeniy regularly speaks at various conferences and seminars in Russia and abroad, telling listeners about various nuances of countering cyber attacks. Kaspersky Lab cooperates with many large global companies and also provides information support American, Brazilian, Polish, Israeli and Russian intelligence services. The company's turnover, according to some sources, is more than $650 million a year.

In 2012, Kaspersky Lab united more than two and a half thousand employees. For his work, Evgeny Valentinovich was awarded many prestigious awards, including the State Prize of the Russian Federation (2009) and the Runet Prize (2010). In 2012, the American publication Foreign Policy placed him forty in its ranking of the most notable thinkers of the year.

Who is Kaspersky?

Personal life of Evgeny Kaspersky

The legendary cybercrime fighter was married twice. From his first marriage to Natalya Kasperskaya (a businesswoman and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab), he has two children. The eldest son, Maxim, is a student at the Faculty of Geography at Moscow State University, and the youngest, Ivan, studies there, but in the department of computational mathematics and cybernetics.

Evgeny Kaspersky maintains friendly and trusting relationship. Until 2012, the former spouses remained colleagues and business partners.

All that is known about the programmer’s second wife is that Kaspersky met her at one of the ski resorts.

Kidnapping of Kaspersky's son

In April 2011, the youngest son of a millionaire was kidnapped by attackers near one of the Moscow metro stations. The attackers demanded 3 million euros for his life, but ultimately received only impressive prison sentences. After five days of imprisonment, Ivan was rescued from captivity by Moscow law enforcement officers. ( 1965-10-04 ) (53 years old)

early years

Evgeny Kaspersky was born on October 4, 1965, the only child in the family. He began his studies at secondary school No. 3 named after Gastello in the town of Dolgoprudny near Moscow. While still at school, Kaspersky began an in-depth study of mathematics as part of a special course. After winning the Mathematical Olympiad in 1980, he was enrolled and in 1982 graduated from Physics and Mathematics Boarding School No. 18 named after A. N. Kolmogorov at Moscow State University.

In 1987 he graduated from the 4th (technical) faculty High school KGB (currently the faculty is known as the Academy of the FSB of Russia) in Moscow, where he studied mathematics, cryptography and Computer techologies, and received the specialty “mathematical engineer”.

Career

In 1987, Evgeny Kaspersky began working at a multidisciplinary research institute under the USSR Ministry of Defense. It was here that he began studying computer viruses after encountering the Cascade virus in 1989. After analyzing the virus code, Evgeniy developed a special utility to treat it and became interested in this topic.

In 1991, Evgeny Kaspersky began working at the KAMI Information Technology Center, where he headed a small group of specialists developing anti-virus solutions.

In November 1992, the group released its first full-fledged product - AVP 1.0. In 1994 it won a comparative test carried out by the test laboratory of the University of Hamburg. This provided the product with international fame, and developers began to license their technologies to foreign IT companies.

In 1997, Kaspersky and his colleagues decided to create their own company, acting as co-founders of Kaspersky Lab. Evgeniy did not want his last name to appear in the name of the company, but Natalya Kasperskaya, Evgeniy’s wife at that time, who was also one of the co-founders of the Laboratory, convinced him. In November 2000, the AVP product was renamed Kaspersky Anti-Virus.

Kaspersky led anti-virus research at the company from its founding until 2007, when he took over as CEO of Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky's office is located in a new business center on Leningradskoye Shosse. Evgeny Kaspersky's office is located on the same floor with the company's leading developers and analysts, next to Kaspersky Lab's Global Research Center (GReAT). Evgeniy is a co-author of several patents in the field of information security, including a patent for a restrictive attribute security system that controls the interaction of software components. This patent was issued for the technology underlying the secure operating system currently being developed by Kaspersky Lab.

Today, Kaspersky is one of the world's leading experts in the field of virus protection. He is the author of a large number of articles and reviews on the problem of computer virology, and regularly speaks at specialized seminars and conferences in Russia and abroad. Kaspersky is a member of the Computer Virus Research Organization (CARO), which brings together experts in the field.

Kaspersky is the founder of the Virus Bulletin conference, which has been held annually by the antivirus industry since 2001.

In 2012, Kaspersky was included in the ranking of the 100 most influential thinkers of the year according to Foreign Policy magazine and took 40th place, losing among representatives of Russia to the punk group Pussy Riot, which took 16th place in the ranking.

In December 2012, the American magazine Wired placed Kaspersky in 8th place on its list of “the most dangerous people in the world” - for exposing American cyber weapons created for espionage in the Middle East and disrupting the Iranian nuclear program.

Evgeniy feels like a man who is on the front line in the war against cybercriminals. The “laboratory,” according to Kaspersky, has no investors, operates exclusively at the expense of its own resources, and invests all profits in further development.

During his travels around the world, Evgeniy Kaspersky regularly gives reports on the dangers of cyber warfare and the need to counter the escalation of cyber threats at the global level. He views cybersecurity education as key to successfully combating cyber threats. This applies to both ordinary users and IT security specialists, who often lack qualifications. Evgeniy also actively supports the idea of universal standardization and the adoption of uniform policies in the field of cybersecurity, as well as the idea of cooperation between government agencies and companies operating in the IT security industry.

“Private companies - especially in the IT and security industries, as well as in some strategically important industries for which IT security is a top priority - have accumulated a wealth of practical experience in combating cyber threats, which the government could use extremely successfully.”

Evgeny Kaspersky supports the idea of using Internet passports when performing critical operations on the global network: when voting in elections, working in online banking systems, receiving public services etc.

“It seems to me that the Internet space needs to be divided into three zones. “Red” zone - for those processes where safety is critical; here the use of an Internet passport is mandatory. In the “yellow” zone, authorization requirements are lower - it is necessary, for example, to verify the age of the buyer in online stores selling alcohol or offering products for adults. And finally, the “green” zone: blogs, social networks, news sites, chats - everything that has to do with freedom of speech. No authorization is required here."

According to Kaspersky, the main vulnerability of the Internet is its anonymity. Therefore, to do world wide web less vulnerable, each user must be accurately identified. Kaspersky suggests allowing connection to the network only after receiving a special passport and passing an exam, similar to a driver’s license. And to monitor compliance with the law on the Internet, a special Internet police (Internet Interpol) should be created. “Everyone is required to have an ID or Internet passport,” Evgeny Kaspersky told ZDNet Asia while attending an Interpol conference in Singapore. - The Internet was originally developed not for public use, but for scientists and the US military. Only then was it presented to the public, and it turned out to be a mistake... to present it the way it was done.” At the same time, Kaspersky is convinced that the new system should be exclusively compulsory, and all countries should obey it. “If any country disagrees or ignores the agreement, just cut off their Internet,” he said. Evgeny Kaspersky has been making a proposal to escape anonymity on the Internet for several years [ When?], but only now [ When?] his ideas attracted the attention of the Western press. Considers it necessary to introduce criminal penalties for spam.

It is characterized in the press as “the menace of computer crime.”

Family and hobbies

State

With the exception of Kaspersky Lab shares, Evgeniy does not have significant investments: “I have a company, an apartment in Moscow and a BMW car. But other than that I have nothing else.”

Books

Written by Evgeny Kaspersky:

Biography:

Vladislav Dorofeev, Tatyana Kostyleva. Kaspersky principle: bodyguard of the Internet. - M.: Eksmo, 2011.

Awards

In 2012, Evgeny Kaspersky was awarded an honorary doctorate of science. University of Plymouth en. That same year, he was included in the Top 25 Innovators of the Year ranking by CRN.

Awards and prizes:

Notes

IT personality: Evgeniy Kaspersky. Competent look. Review. Dailycomm.ru (undefined) . www.dailycomm.ru. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
Kaspersky Evgeniy Valentinovich(English) . Forbes.ru (April 15, 2011). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
Official page of Evgeny Kaspersky V social network"In contact with "
Dmitry Vinogradov. Figure: Evgeniy Kaspersky: I am fighting global malice (Russian). Russian reporter. rusrep.ru (August 27, 2008). Retrieved December 23, 2012. Archived December 25, 2012.
Vladislav Yuryevich Dorofeev, Tatyana Petrovna Kostyleva. Chapter 1, White Target Pebbles// Kaspersky principle: bodyguard of the Internet. - M.: Eksmo, 2011. - 332 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-49120-9.
Kiwi Bird. Believe it or not (undefined) . magazine " Home Computer"(April 4, 2008). Retrieved August 14, 2015. Archived August 13, 2009.
Kaspersky: antivirus was my hobby (Russian). RIA Novosti (20120712T1754+0400Z). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
The secret of Evgeny Kaspersky (Russian). www.elle.ru. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
Sergey Villanov. Report from Evgeniy Kaspersky's office (undefined) . Digital World Magazine. dgl.ru (August 28, 2013). Retrieved August 29, 2013.
ininventor:"Eugene V. Kaspersky" - Google Search (undefined) . www.google.com. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
In the hundred thinkers of the year, Pussy Riot is ahead of Kaspersky and Navalny (undefined) . Forbes. forbes.ru (November 26, 2012). Retrieved November 27, 2012. Archived November 29, 2012.
Noah Shachtman. The 15 Most Dangerous People in the World(English) . Wired. wired.com (19 December 2012). Retrieved December 20, 2012. Archived December 23, 2012.
Andrey Sidorchik. Extremely dangerous. Kaspersky is included in the list of the world's main villains (undefined) . AiF. aif.ru (December 25, 2012). Retrieved December 26, 2012. Archived December 27, 2012.
Carol Matlack; Michael Riley, Jordan Robertson. The Company Securing Your Internet Has Close Ties to Russian Spies(English) . Bloomberg Television (19 March 2015). Retrieved August 14, 2015. Archived March 20, 2015.
Andrey Kuznetsov. Bloomberg spoke about Kaspersky's connections with Russian intelligence services (undefined) . RBC (March 19, 2015). Retrieved August 14, 2015. Archived March 19, 2015.
Kaspersky responded to the publication about connections with intelligence agencies (undefined) . Forbes (March 20, 2015). Retrieved August 14, 2015. Archived May 9, 2015.
Vladislav Novy. If they "bring down" a region, city or country as a whole - goodbye (undefined) . Kommersant. kommersant.ru (March 28, 2013). Retrieved September 15, 2013.
Silicon UK | Technology & Business News(undefined) . Silicon UK. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
Kramer, Andrew E.. Cyberweapon Warning From Kaspersky, a Computer Security Expert (English) , The New York Times(June 3, 2012). Retrieved December 28, 2018.
Kaspersky Warns UK Government Of ‘Catastrophic’ Cyber Attack
Interviews: Eugene Kaspersky Answers Your Questions - Slashdot
Evgeniy Kaspersky (undefined) . vse-o-kompyutere.ru. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
Evgeny Kaspersky: founder of Kaspersky Lab (undefined) . www.webplaneta.de. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
Pavel Kantyshev, Oleg Salmanov, Olga Shlyapnikova“The threat of cyberterrorism is a sad reality” Vedomosti
Kaspersky's son has been released, five kidnappers, including the organizer, have been detained (undefined) . Gazeta.Ru. Retrieved January 30, 2013. Archived February 1, 2013.
Kaspersky's son identified his kidnapper in court - Gazeta. Ru | News. Society
Kidnappers demand 3 million euros for Kaspersky's son // Vesti.ru