1. Yevgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky is a Russian cybersecurity expert and the CEO of Kaspersky Lab, an IT security company with 4,000 employees.
40 Facts About Eugene Kaspersky
1. 2.
Eugene Kaspersky co-founded Kaspersky Lab in 1997 and helped identify instances of government-sponsored cyberwarfare as the head of research.
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Eugene Kaspersky has been an advocate for an international treaty prohibiting cyberwarfare.
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Eugene Kaspersky graduated from The Technical Faculty of the KGB Higher School in 1987 with a degree in mathematical engineering and computer technology.
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Eugene Kaspersky helped grow Eugene Kaspersky Lab through security research and salesmanship.
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Eugene Kaspersky became the CEO in 2007 and remains so as of 2024.
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Eugene Kaspersky was born on 4 October 1965 in Novorossiysk, Soviet Union.
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Eugene Kaspersky grew up near Moscow, where he moved at age nine.
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Eugene Kaspersky's father was an engineer and his mother a historical archivist.
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Eugene Kaspersky spent his free time reading math books and won second place in a math competition at age 14.
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Eugene Kaspersky was a member of the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
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At the age of 16, Eugene 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.
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Eugene Kaspersky graduated in 1987 with a degree in mathematical engineering and computer technology.
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Eugene Kaspersky met his first wife Natalya Kaspersky at Severskoye, a KGB vacation resort, in 1987.
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Eugene Kaspersky studied how the virus worked and developed a program to remove it.
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In 1991, Eugene Kaspersky was granted an early release from his military service and left the defense ministry to take a job at the Information Technology Center of a private company KAMI, in order to work on his antivirus product full-time.
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Natalya, who pushed Eugene Kaspersky to start the company, was the CEO, while Eugene Kaspersky was the head of research.
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Eugene Kaspersky was often quoted in the technology press as an antivirus expert.
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Eugene Kaspersky helped establish the company's Global Research and Expert Analysis Team, which helps corporations and governments investigate IT security threats.
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Eugene Kaspersky hired the researcher that identified the Stuxnet worm, which is believed to be the first instance of state-sponsored cyberweapon.
21.
Eugene Kaspersky Lab has defended itself against allegedly frivolous patent claims more aggressively than most IT companies.
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Eugene Kaspersky himself is the co-author of several patents, including one for a constraint-and-attribute-based security system for controlling software component interaction.
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Eugene Kaspersky faced geopolitical challenges, notably in 2017, when the US government banned its software over alleged ties to the Russian government, which Kaspersky denied.
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In June 2024, following further US sanctions, Eugene Kaspersky withdrew from the US market, later replacing its software on American users' systems with UltraAV.
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Eugene Kaspersky has warned about the possibility of cyberwarfare that targets critical infrastructure.
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Eugene Kaspersky speaks at conferences advocating for an international cyberwarfare treaty, that would ban government-sponsored cyberattacks.
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Eugene Kaspersky argued that anonymity mostly benefited cybercriminals and hackers.
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Eugene Kaspersky said anonymity on the Internet could be protected by using a proxy, whereby a responsible international body maintains a record of which online identities correspond to which real-world ones.
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In 2012, Eugene Kaspersky ranked 40th in the Foreign Policy magazine's Top 100 Global Thinkers yearly rating.
30.
Eugene Kaspersky said his company has never been asked to tamper with its software for espionage and called the accusations "cold war paranoia".
31.
Bloomberg and The New York Times said Eugene Kaspersky was less aggressive about identifying cyberattacks originating from Russia than from other countries, allegations Eugene Kaspersky refutes.
32.
Eugene Kaspersky allegedly ignored a Russian-based spyware called Sofacy, which is believed to have been used by Russia against NATO and Eastern Europe.
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NPR reported that Eugene Kaspersky has been doing an increasing amount of business with Russian cybersecurity agencies to catch cybercriminals.
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Eugene Kaspersky confirmed that Russian agencies are among its government customers.
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Eugene 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.
36.
The allegations claimed that Eugene Kaspersky himself had ordered some of the actions, specifically targeting competitors, including Chinese companies he felt were copying his software.
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Eugene Kaspersky first made the list in 2015 when his net worth reached US$1 billion.
38.
Eugene Kaspersky worked with a friend at the FSB and Russian police to trace the ransomer's phone call.
39.
Eugene Kaspersky has gone hiking on volcanoes in Russia and reserved a trip to space on the Virgin Galactic.
40.
Eugene Kaspersky is known for shunning formal attire, typically dressing in jeans and a shirt.