You can talk about the Russian computer genius non-stop for a very, very long time, without losing admiration in a single word, because this person is Evgeny Kaspersky. His biography is full of achievements of the highest level. This man is a brand in itself, a billionaire programmer, head of the self-created international company Kaspersky Lab, dealing with computer security, selling software in at least two hundred countries and having more than thirty representatives in the regions.
In addition to running the company, he works extensively at the Computer Virus Research Organization, regularly reviews the subject, writes articles, and develops computer security. "Laboratory" is flourishing, and the director and main owner, Evgeny Kaspersky, makes the biggest contribution to this.
Biography
He was born in 1965 in Novorossiysk. The family was intelligent and had nothing to do with programming. His father worked at a cement plant as an engineer, and his mother was an archivist-historian. Mathematics in the family was truly loved only by Evgeny Kaspersky himself. His biography was built on this love.
From Novorossiysk, the parents moved near Moscow - to Dolgoprudny, where the boy studied at an excellent school and attended a special course in his favorite subject. Childhood, family, parents - the biography of Evgeny Kaspersky, as the only son, was built only on love and mutual understanding. Parents liked their son's hobby, and they supported him in every possible way: they bought special books, helped in everything.
The result is brilliant. In 1980, Evgeny Kaspersky, whose biography was already beginning to take shape in a certain way, won the All-Union Mathematical Olympiad, and therefore entered the Kolmogorov boarding school. Everyone already knew then that this educational institution belongs to Moscow State University. However, there were higher educational institutions in the country much steeper. In 1987, it became clear that the biography of Yevgeny Kaspersky looks even richer from the choice made: he received a degree in mathematical engineering from the Higher School of the KGB. This was followed by several years of service - up to the rank of senior lieutenant.
Work
The science of mathematics was always easy for him, cryptography and computer technology were extremely interesting, and therefore success was evident. Immediately after graduating from an educational institution, the first triumphs appeared in the biography of Evgeny Kaspersky. He got a job in a multidisciplinary research institute, which existed under the auspices of the USSR Ministry of Defense. This was the service.
This is where research on computer viruses began. The success did not develop in a single moment, it took the programmer ten years to establish himself as he should in the field of anti-virus protection of operating systems, after which it was already possible to organize his own business.
Secrets
One of the most famous specialists in the fight against cybercrime today is Evgeniy Valentinovich Kaspersky. His biography is exceptionally rich in events, including dangerous ones both for Eugene himself, "every day saving the world", and for his family. Everyone knows the case of the kidnapping of his son. But this man was and remains a real threat to global hacking. A photo of Evgeny Kaspersky can be easily obtained on the Internet, as well as the simplest, world-famous information about him.
However, the main part of his life has always been closed to everyone and will probably never be fully opened. At least not in our lifetime. About, for example, nationality Eugene Kaspersky only jokes. It is placed on the branches of their family tree by Jews, Germans, and Bulgarians (the latter even spread the theory that they invented the computer in Bulgaria). In fact, the surname is Polish, and Evgeny Kaspersky himself, first of all, is a Soviet person.
1989 year
Since that year, the direction of all further activities of one of the most famous was clearly outlined, and it was in 1989 that a successful programmer got his first own computer. And, as it turned out, infected. At the origins of the development of personal computers, few people knew about viruses at all, they were a huge rarity. Such simple ones, even primitive ones, would probably be funny to today's programmer.
But they didn't know how to fight them back then. Kaspersky was lucky, fate itself went to meet him, slipping the infection into the very first computer, which Evgeny cured without difficulty. But on a diskette the virus saved - for studying. After analyzing this malicious program (it turned out to be "Kaskad-1704"), Kaspersky wrote a "healing" utility. Purely out of curiosity, he did all this, but the Air Force General Staff itself became interested. From that time on, viruses began to come to the programmer constantly, all new, more and more complex. Kaspersky cracked them like nuts.
1991 year
In 1991, another fateful event happened: an already well-known programmer was accepted into "KAMI" - the Information Technology Center, where he continued to work on anti-virus programs. Six years of work in this institution gave an exceptionally high result - the Kaspersky Anti-Virus program, which very soon became the most popular in Russia and in all CIS countries.
The level of protection was very high, and this novelty soon began to stand not only on computers of various companies, but also on almost every personal one. The program was constantly being improved, new versions appeared, which were also very successful. And in 1997, Evgeny Kaspersky with a small group of colleagues and like-minded people founded Kaspersky Lab, which quickly became a large company headquartered in Moscow, and its representative offices were opened in various parts of the world.
Cooperation
Conferences and seminars dedicated to computer virology are held on behalf of the company both in our country and abroad. Students are taught to resist hacker attacks. Now information is being exchanged with the special services of Russia, Israel, Poland, Brazil, America, and the company's turnover has grown incredibly. The exact figure is unknown, but in the early 2000s, experts counted about seven hundred million dollars a year.
From history: the founder of the company really did not want to put his own name on public display, but in those days, Evgeny Kaspersky's personal life had already taken place a long time ago. And his first wife insisted on just such a name for the future brand. She also became a co-founder. Simultaneously with the start of its own company, SecureList was opened - an Internet portal, which is an encyclopedia of viruses, errors, vulnerabilities, and malicious programs. Information is constantly updated, it comes out on two pages - in English and Russian versions.
Personal life
For the first time, the legendary cybercrime fighter married a future prominent businesswoman, Natalya. She became a co-founder of his "Laboratory" in 1997. In a word, Evgeny Kaspersky had a lot in common with his wife. The photo speaks of such closeness, which, it would seem, is not afraid of any life ups and downs. But in 1998 they divorced. However, they did not part to the end, remaining friends, colleagues and partners, retaining their very two sons - Maxim and Ivan - were brought up together.
And since Yevgeny Valentinovich almost immediately remarried, the children perceived the two families as one. The first wife also formed a new family, and very often they rested together - with two families, keeping only in 2012, Natalya and Evgeny ceased to be business partners.
The third wife of Evgeny Kaspersky is Chinese. A photo of this couple from 2009 - the beginning of their relationship - and until now it is simply impossible to find on the Internet. “All three of our common children are fluent in both Russian and Chinese, which, of course, enriches the world of their communication,” says Evgeny Kaspersky. “A Chinese wife is wonderful!”
Family
The new wife works at the Pushkin Institute. As they say, she is a smart and delicate person. Kaspersky most of all appreciates softness in women, about the same - intelligence. Maxim - the eldest son - did not follow in his father's footsteps, he nevertheless chose Moscow State University and its Faculty of Geography. Ivan is also at this university, but is studying computational mathematics and cybernetics. In 2011, a terrible thing happened - something that wealthy families often experience.
Ivan was kidnapped from the metro and demanded a ransom - some miserable three million euros for his precious life. The Moscow Criminal Investigation Department worked well, the criminals were quickly detained, Ivan was returned safe and sound to his parents. But anything could happen. One can imagine how worried relatives were when the whole country was so worried that strangers shared fresh information with each other in trams: “Caught? .. How, still not ?!” And so all five days, until the situation was resolved by the capture of criminals.
Hobbies
The most important hobby of the famous programmer is skiing. And in general, he is very fond of extreme types of recreation - kayaking, auto racing (collaborates with the Ferrari brand, follows Formula 1 with great attention). Takes great pictures. He travels a lot, and prefers virgin, wild places. Loves Kamchatka.
He maintains a blog where he talks a lot about the work of the company, about cybersecurity, but there are about the same number of photos taken with his own hands in the most beautiful places on the planet, as well as many stories about interesting events that can better see the activities of this self-confident, whole and positive tuned person. In addition to the blog, Kaspersky has an Instagram account.
State
In 2016, the fortune of Evgeny Kaspersky was estimated at $1.1 billion. According to Forbes, in the ranking of the richest Russians, he ranked 86th. The creators of Kaspersky Lab claim that they do not have third-party investors. The company develops thanks to the turnover of its own profits, and they value its independence very much. In principle, there is still enough profit for development.
Everything that Kaspersky has from significant investments is connected only with his "Laboratory". He does not conduct any extraneous business games. The success of his own company is what is his main business. Of the property, according to him, only Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow apartment and a BMW car, he has nothing more, and he does not need anything else.
purpose
Kaspersky is at the very forefront of modern cyber warfare, fighting the destroyers of our future - computer viruses. And the fact that our life today is unthinkable without information technology is clear to everyone. There will be more to come. Rumors have been circulating for many years about the connections of the "Laboratory" with the special services. Evgeny Kaspersky himself does not comment on any rumors. no matter what they touch, he does not advertise his party sympathies all the more.
The press service of the "Laboratory" calls the rumors on this subject slander. However, the cooperation is clearly there! And it is necessary. Law enforcement officers cannot do without the help of specialists of such a plan today. So, in June 2016, it was Kaspersky who helped them find fifty hackers (the Lurk group).
On Guard
And a little earlier, in 2015, Kaspersky Lab uncovered cyber espionage, the victims of which were Israel, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan and other countries of the Middle East, where a huge number of victims of the Desert Falcons operation turned out to be. It's not just the Middle East that has been affected. Even in Russia, the virus has been detected. More than fifty countries have lost over a million valuable files.
These were mainly government agencies, military departments, media, research institutions and educational, large energy companies. Political leaders and activists who possess the most important geopolitical information have suffered. Kaspersky Lab found all three groups of Arab hackers who carried out their malicious activities in different countries.
Saying "Kaspersky", we mean antivirus. But we must not forget that a living person stands behind a well-known product, with its own unique history and destiny. Today, Evgeny 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, 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 the most prominent experts in the field.
"Man-brand" - so briefly and succinctly characterizes Evgeny Kaspersky Sergey Girdin, president of the Marvel group of companies. No less vivid epithets were chosen for him by the general director of Krok, Boris Bobrovnikov: "Transnational monster ...".
Success story, Biography of Eugene Kaspersky
Evgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky was born on October 4, 1965 in the city of Novorossiysk. Since childhood, the boy had an interest in mathematics, which his mother noticed and began to buy special books for her son. After a specialized mathematical boarding school at Moscow State University, Evgeny graduated from the Institute of Cryptography, Communications and Informatics. It was in the late 80s. At that time, finding a job in this specialty was not so much a problem, but at least a serious topic for reflection.
And since by this time Kaspersky had already managed to acquire a family (not only a wife, but also two children), it was worth taking the choice with all responsibility. As a result, the military area was chosen. The reason was two things. Firstly, the idea of cultivating discipline in oneself seemed interesting, which the army definitely contributes to. Secondly, even at school, recruiters from one extremely closed research institute of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces came to Yevgeny - and made the most pleasant impression on the young man.
However, the service of the golden mountains did not promise, but I wanted to develop and move forward. Kaspersky tried to set up a side job in parallel by participating in the activities of one cooperative engaged in the sale of PCs. But the idea was not crowned with success, to say the least - 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 not known what other areas he would have had time to try himself if it were not for the Cascade virus, which by chance started on his car in 1989. Having discovered the “disease”, Kaspersky managed to “dissect” the virus without any problems (nevertheless, it is unlikely that a mediocre programmer would have been taken to a secret government research institute). Having dismantled the code for spare parts, he quickly made a program that eliminates the harmful 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 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 protagonist of this book, I am unlikely to do something else, because this business will never bore me.
Many craftsmen around the world in those years "reached" the Web, and while some sowed something reasonable and positive, do not feed others with bread - let them do bad things to your neighbor. In a word, there was no shortage of computer infection. Eugene, on the other hand, became seriously interested in malware, but still did not think about it as a source of income. He simply collected Trojans, viruses and others like them, and at his leisure he created "antidotes". Basically just a hobby.
But the earth is full of rumors. Gradually, they began to turn to him for help. At first, “hack-work” brought little money, and orders were rare and were too small. A couple of third-party clients and the already mentioned cooperative - this is, perhaps, all with whom the future head of one of the largest anti-virus laboratories in the world dealt with. Of course, this situation prevented us from considering a promising future market area in this area of activity.
The first serious order served as a signal for action. A large company developing a large software package wanted to include an anti-virus program in the package and turned to Evgeny. At that time, this seemed almost impossible - the technologies were not the same, moreover, neither the customer nor the contractor had practically almost no experience. The project seemed too monumental. However, the attempt is not torture. The contract was signed.
Although the resulting program was far from ideal, its development still brought in solid money. A pleasant feature of this brainchild (pleasant for customers!) Was the GUI, which competitors could not boast of at that time. 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 is quite capable of turning into a job.
And fate, as if deciding to play it safe and fearing that the above case would be perceived as an exception that confirms the rule, threw Evgeny another rather serious contract. Now "on hand" there was a batch of computers that needed to be equipped with protection. The deed was done. Machines equipped with antiviruses sold well, again bringing good earnings. This time, Kaspersky invested the money earned in his first book "Computer Viruses in MS-DOS", publishing it independently. Now it has become completely stupid to deny the benefit, a certain trend has emerged.
“When I started doing anti-virus software in the early 1990s, I got 2-3 successful contracts. Thanks to them, I earned decent money for those times, with which you 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 solely 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 them and printed my first book. It didn't work out, but I still think I made the right decision. I invested in my name, which eventually became a well-known brand."
What his hobby was transforming into took more and more time. Kaspersky was actively interested in the topic, began attending various conferences and forums of software developers, writing articles, but he had to do everything in his spare time. By the way, working in a secret research institute, it is difficult to conduct an active public activity and speak at various events. Every moment I had to constantly talk to my superiors. It became clear that this could not continue for long. It was time to decide whether to continue a military career, or quit and work closely with antiviruses.
AVP and Kaspersky Lab
The time then was restless and incomprehensible, no one knew what would happen in the country in six months or a year, and the army at the very 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 tunic of Senior Lieutenant Evgeny Kaspersky still hangs in the company's office in a place of honor.
I must say that it was very difficult for a young officer to leave the ranks of the army. The dismissal process took about a year. Eugene did everything possible to part with the Armed Forces without conflict. As it was written in the order of dismissal, he left the ranks of the army due to service inconsistency. Colleagues frankly laughed and asked: "In terms of service discrepancy in which direction?" After all, at that time, and the transfer to the reserve took place in the spring of 1991, Evgeny was considered the main "computer" at his institute. For all questions related to software products, they turned to him. “Having removed his shoulder straps,” Kaspersky decided to take a short vacation for himself, but he could not sit at home for more than two weeks. The search for a new job did not take long, there were several companies in mind. Eugene arranged a tender between three computer companies and on May 19, 1991, he went to work at the KAMI technical center. Until that moment, the company did not develop or sell anti-virus products, there was not even such a department. However, the head of the Scientific and Technical Center, Alexei Remizov, knew Yevgeny well (at one time Remizov taught at the Higher School of the KGB and read one of the special courses to Yevgeny) and completely trusted him. Especially for Kaspersky, which has already acquired a name and gained a certain authority in the computer world, an anti-virus division was created. At first, he was his only employee.
At first, the entire staff of the department was limited only to Eugene himself. But on the other hand, he was given a full-fledged workplace, a computer and the opportunity to create. The time has come to catch up, because what his then achievements were could hardly survive in a rapidly growing market. Lozinsky's brainchild, Aidstest, was then firmly in the lead among domestic products; well, Western monsters like McAfee and Norton AntiVirus, which appeared in 1992, left little room for maneuver.
Working tirelessly, 12 hours a day, without holidays and often without days off, Kaspersky set about creating his own antivirus, practically making his dream come true. Gradually, other specialists appeared in the department besides him. Anti-virus databases have expanded significantly. In a word, the process has started.
Already by 1994, AntiViral Toolkit Pro (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 did not hesitate to do (using the connections he had previously established). He sent the ATP to the University of Hamburg, but while attaching the program to the letter, he accidentally mistyped it, naming the archive AVP.zip. According to the tests, the development bypassed all competitors, having found the largest number of viruses. At first, Evgeny could not understand what other AVP he was receiving laudatory emails about. Only later did he notice an unfortunate typo, but it was too late to change anything - the program had already gained fame under the “erroneous” name.
In the same 94th, after the triumph in Hamburg, the first contracts appeared. Immediately, right off the bat, foreign - with Italy and Switzerland. AVP was also sold through the KAMI Research and Development Center itself, but the sales were simply ridiculous (not to mention the money raised).
“The first thing I planned when I started working was to make the best antivirus in the world. In 1994, we won first place in the international program testing in Hamburg. Then it became clear that we were on the right track. Even if the project did not bring a lot of money, we did not start it in vain - it became 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 anti-virus department itself, as a manager. She was entrusted with almost the main task at that time - to establish sales of the product.
On the ruins of what until recently was the Soviet Union, it was difficult to do business, and even more so IT business. Things were not going well for KAMI, while Evgeny's department gradually acquired serious agreements and contracts. Affiliate network began to line up by 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 core in their anti-virus products. Around the same period, Natalya started talking about creating her own company and separating from KAMI. At first, Eugene did not share his wife's ideas, speaking out against it, but when everything became completely bleak at the STC, he gave up.
Thus, on July 21, 1997, the independent enterprise Kaspersky Lab was born. The wife insisted that the name of our hero 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, deciding to save money, offered to name 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 that it was the right decision. Although greatly narrowing privacy. I had to become a kind of "man-boat". It's a funny feeling, it's hard to convey. I can’t say that I’m used to it - I involuntarily shudder when they say my name. I would not want Kaspersky Lab to be considered a company named after one person, although I understand that I play a prominent role in it.”
Natalia headed the new enterprise. She took the post of general director of the laboratory, leaving the direct work on the project to her husband. And things went uphill. Already in 1999, the first international representative office of the company opened, and the share of the Russian market owned by Kaspersky Lab increased dramatically from 5% to 50%. The quality of the product, and round-the-clock support for customers, which at that time was a huge rarity, and many other, smaller, but important factors, played a role. The former AVP, renamed Kaspersky Anti-Virus, was in no way inferior to Western competitors.
“Oddly enough, for the first time I felt myself a wealthy person in the crisis year of 1998. At that time, we were already 80% an export company, and partners paid almost in advance to support us. Therefore, unlike many in the market, we felt good and saw a very definite prospect. Although in fact the pockets were empty. I then realized for the first time that having real money is by and large unimportant.
With the advent of the third millennium, we have approached the "recent history" of JSC "Kaspersky Lab". Initially, Kaspersky Lab employed six people, but gradually it has grown into an international group of companies headquartered in Moscow, ten foreign representative offices and a staff of more than 500 people (today the company's Moscow head office alone employs more than 1,500 people).
In early 2002, the "Laboratory" expanded its scope of activities to protect users not only from viruses, but also from the entire range of information security threats. At the end of the year, users were introduced to the personal firewall Kaspersky 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 merged with the development team of the Romanian anti-virus system RAV. In the annual report "An analysis of the Russian anti-virus protection market 2007-2008" of the Russian independent information and analytical portal Anti-Malware.ru, Kaspersky Lab took a leading position in the Russian market with sales of $60.2 million and a market share of 45 percent
The scope of the company's activities has expanded long ago and now covers not only personal computers, but also workstations, file and mail servers under almost any operating system, 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.
Business details of Kaspersky Lab
Forbes magazine found the company's financial statements under IFRS for 2006-2010, as well as documents on transactions between shareholders, and identified 10 key facts of Kaspersky's business:
STRUCTURE. The parent company of the group is the British Kaspersky Labs Limited (KL), which owns CJSC Kaspersky Lab and distributors in different countries of the world. Over the past few years, KL has been pursuing a strategy of acquiring distributors. For example, the purchase of its own distributor in Japan cost $120,000, and in America, according to the reports, the distributor was bought out 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.
BIGGEST MARKETS. Europe - 40%. Region EEMEA (countries of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa) - 27%. North and South America - 21%.
“Russian software manufacturers are afraid to enter foreign markets, they are simply afraid. They don't understand the culture, they don't understand how to run a business. They don't speak English. Their abroad ends with Antalya once a year. I have spoken to such people. I say: "Guys, the Russian IT and software market is a penny compared to foreign markets." They say, “Well, yes. But we're fine here too." This is a dead end branch of development.”
MONEY. Thanks to stable cash flow, KL has accumulated almost $300 million, or almost six annual profits. Kaspersky's company kept $213 million in bank deposits, another $80 million in cash.
ADVANCED GROWTH OF COSTS. With the growth of sales in 2010 by 40%, the main items of expenditure increased by 1.5-2 times. Here are salaries, and marketing with advertising, and even such a line as “travel and entertainment” (an increase of 2.1 times, to $ 10 million).
EMPOWERMENT OF EMPLOYEES. One of the reasons for the sharp increase in costs was the launch in 2010 of a long-term plan to stimulate staff: the company allocated 5.3 million shares for this in 2010 alone. For the options program, the shares are valued at $8. The company allocates options in tranches - in June 2011, 2012 and 2013. The fair value of the options purchase 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. The cost of their maintenance - $2.78 million (against $4.26 million in 2009). The maximum director's remuneration was $814,000. Salaries and bonuses for top management in 2010 exceeded $16 million (against $8 million in 2009).
CHARITY. In 2010, KL donated $670,000 to orphanages and hospitals (up from $418,000 in 2009). The report emphasizes that the company has not made any payments to political parties.
DIVIDENTS. In 2009 and 2010, the company paid $10 million in dividends each.
SHAREHOLDERS. The appearance in 2011 in the list of shareholders of General Atlantic's KL fund came as a surprise. The market was talking about the fact that Kaspersky Lab is preparing for an IPO. But a year later, in early 2012, the company announced that the fund was withdrawing from among its co-owners. Having decided to understand the change in the capital structure, KL Forbes identified three main phases:
- End of 2010. The capital of KL consists of 95.3 million shares. The largest shareholders are Evgeny Kaspersky (about 57%) and Zerosta Holdings, according to our data, controlled by his ex-wife Natalya Kasperskaya (about 23%). Among the co-owners are technical specialists Alexei De-Monderik (over 10%) and Vadim Bogdanov (over 5%) who stood at the origins of the company.
- Early 2011, entry into the capital of General Atlantic. Kaspersky 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, while preferred shares are valued at $65 million. Transactions with other shareholders are being carried out in parallel. Kaspersky sells 2.8 million shares for $28.7 million, De-Monderic - 2 million ($20.4 million), Evgeny Buyakin - 1.5 million ($15.3 million) and steps down as CEO Kaspersky Labs, other minority shareholders - about 1 million shares ($10.5 million). Yevgeny Kaspersky also presents some of his shares - their value is estimated at $62 million. The total amount of the buyback is $337.6 million. The redeemed shares are redeemed, reducing the capital to 68.2 million shares.
Based on the value of the shares and their number to maturity, shareholders estimated the value of the company at $1.03 billion.
According to KL documents, Natalya Kaspersky was supposed to have a stake in the company. But the official message of Kaspersky Lab says that Kaspersky is no longer its shareholder. Calculations carried out by Forbes show that the block of shares sold by Evgeny Kaspersky exactly coincides with the number of shares that were supposed to remain with Kaspersky. Apparently, the former spouses previously made a deal with shares between themselves. Thus, the share of Eugene Kaspersky in KL exceeded 79%. Kaspersky 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 structure of shareholders? The official message of Kaspersky Lab spoke about the revision of the corporate strategy. Kaspersky, now out of touch with the company, is critical of KL's business prospects: At one time, I convinced Kaspersky and other shareholders that it was necessary to attract external capital just for the purpose of buying businesses and technologies in new interesting areas. We even managed to attract an investor, but unfortunately, Kaspersky blocked the idea of development through acquisitions. To be honest, I don’t see drivers for new growth within the company that would enable Kaspersky Lab to grow organically faster than the market… However, I admit that I could be wrong and the company will find new growth opportunities in other ways».
Personal life of Evgeny Kaspersky: hobbies and interests, family, life ...
Eugene loves Formula 1 in general and Scuderia Ferrari in particular. He is fond of kayaking, skiing, mountain climbing, and also considers work to be his hobby: “For me, a hobby is work, and work is a hobby…”.
“Life does not 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 and quickly takes me away. I don't care what kind of car to 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 distant wanderings, Kaspersky has traveled to various parts of the world, from Kamchatka to the South Pole and regularly reports on travels on the forum of his own Fan Club (kasperskyclub.ru) and on his blog in LiveJournal (e-kaspersky.livejournal.com ).
“I have compiled a list of the 100 most amazing places on the planet that you must see. Until five in the morning I made up - I'm a person who is fond of. Forty-two places out of a hundred I have already seen. And thanks to business trips, which I often combine with tourist expeditions. Curiously, most of the breathtaking attractions are located in China. From Russia, seven iconic places got into my list. This is St. Petersburg, especially in summer, on white nights, Red Square in Moscow, the Kuzov Islands in the White Sea, where the energy is completely unrealistic, the Lena Pillars in Yakutia, Altai, Baikal and Kamchatka.
« I love chopping wood! Although it may seem strange to someone, just lying on the beach is an incomprehensible pleasure for me. Boring and time consuming. A friend of mine, who lives outside the city, once sent me an e-mail photo - a bunch of logs, and under it is the signature: An exclusive type of outdoor recreation - firewood. This is such an exclusive vacation - just for me. Just like fishing. A real man's job. 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. Yes, and my grandfather, a former journalist, was just a crazy fisherman and spent all his free time doing this activity. So I comprehended 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. A few minutes ago, she, alive, fluttered and fought ... Over the years, of course, I learned to treat the animal world more pragmatically. Once in Estonia, I even went to catch trout on purpose so that I could cook and eat it right there. There was a restaurant where every customer who wanted to taste a fish dish had to catch fish for himself in the pond in the courtyard of the restaurant.
Another thing is when in Karelia I fished in natural conditions. When the catch passed all the limits of the necessary, my friends and I announced a moratorium on fishing. And the one who fished during the forbidden hours had to immediately cook and eat the caught fish. Probably, my interest in fishing is still connected not with hunting instincts, but with the opportunity to be in nature.»
In 1998, Evgeny Kaspersky divorced his first wife Natalya. He is now 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 Natalia. Now we are friends and associates. We have a common business, common interests, but different families. When spouses divorce, they often become bitter enemies. I do not understand this. Natalia and I treat each other with great respect, support each other, like brother and sister, we have a joint business, we communicate very well. Why create problems for yourself and others when you can avoid them? The principle that I declare is that when you leave, you should be smiling at your back.
Natalya Kasperskaya about sons - “The eldest son, Maxim, looks like me. He studies poorly, but is very inquisitive. His favorite book is an encyclopedia. He knows the name of a 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, he is very ambitious, he must be the first in everything.”
son kidnapping
On April 19, 2011, Ivan Kaspersky was kidnapped near his mother's Infowatch office, 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 enforcers named the Savelyev family, consisting of the head of the family Nikolai (b. 1949), his wife Lyudmila (b. 1947), and their son Nikolai (b. R.). In addition to the Savelyev family, the group of kidnappers included two friends of Nikolai Jr., 29-30 years old each. Later it became known that it was about Aleksey Ustimchuk (captain of the FSO) and Semyon Gromov.
The attackers searched the Internet for a potential victim for 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 the law enforcement agencies were busy releasing 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 the Kasperskys found out that everything was over, after the information appeared in the media.
According to the official information of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, Ivan Kaspersky was released from the hands of the kidnappers only on Sunday, April 24th. The kidnappers had an appointment to hand over the ransom in Moscow, where the Saveliev family and one of their accomplices went. The cars they were driving were stopped to check their documents, and the perpetrators were detained. At the same time, another capture group entered the territory of the garden where the prisoner was kept. Ivan Kaspersky was found in the building of the bathhouse, where he was guarded by another accomplice of the Saveliev family.
The release was carried out as a result of a military operation by the FSB, MUR and special forces. The operation in the Sergiev Posad area "passed 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 later said.
“The crime was real, my son was captured on the street, they took away all his clothes and everything that was with him, and dressed him in some kind of uniform. He was kept for five days, as far as I know, in handcuffs in a dark bathhouse. He didn't even know how many days he had spent there. Well, of course, he has lost weight, so now we are sending him to rest and fatten up. , - said on April 27, 2011 Kaspersky in the program "Live" on the TV channel "Russia-1".
Later, Evgeny Kaspersky said 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 really amazed at the professionalism that I saw in the actions of the workers of Lubyanka and Petrovka. Huge thanks to them" , - he said.
Awards, merits and achievements of Evgeny Kaspersky
- In 2001, he organized the opening of the annual conference Virus Bulletin - the 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 of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology "for major achievements in the field of modern computer information protection systems."
- On June 12, 2009, Evgeny Kaspersky, by definition of the Council for Science, Technology and Education under the President of Russia, became a laureate of the State Prize in 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 "contribution to the development of the Chinese information security industry." And on the same day he received another award of friendship of the Heihe River (a city in Northeast China, located on the banks of the Amur, opposite the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk) - a distinction 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 of “Manager of the Year” from SC Magazine Europe, and in the same year he entered the rating of Russian billionaires by Finance magazine for the first time, 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 Evgeny Kaspersky in the list of the 15 most dangerous people in the world, putting him in eighth place. The first three places in it are occupied by the head of Iranian special forces, General Qasim Soleimani, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman.
Wired motivated the inclusion of Kaspersky in the rating of “dangerous people” by the work of his “Laboratory” to neutralize the Stuxnet, Flame and Duqu malware, which were used to attack industrial and government facilities in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as his rhetoric in favor of limiting internet freedoms.
« The United States recently waged an online campaign to spy on and counter Iranian atomic scientists. However, cybersecurity experts have exposed every one of Washington's malware projects, rendering Stuxnet, Flame, and Duqu useless. Many of these professionals work for Evgeny Kaspersky, a Russian computer security magnate who runs one of the largest and most skilled antivirus companies in the world.”, - wrote Wired.
| Flame was discovered in 2012 on the hard drives of the Iranian Ministry of Oil Industry, which were donated to Kaspersky Lab at the request of the UN. Flame acted on the territory of Iran and other countries of the Middle East, infecting the computers of government agencies, private companies and ordinary users. Some of Flame's capabilities can amaze the imagination. Let's say one of the modules turned on the microphone of the infected computer and secretly recorded everything that was happening around. Another module, using Bluetooth, scanned the space looking for nearby phones, downloading all available information from them. And when opening the email client, Flame started taking screenshots every 15 seconds. All stolen data was sent to the hackers' servers through secret channels. Flame is similar to the Stuxnet and DuQu viruses (discovered in 2010), which are responsible for disabling centrifuges at the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which threw back the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic several years ago. |
Noah Shachtman, who authored the chapter dedicated to Evgeny Kaspersky in the “list of the most dangerous people”, writes: “ If the only thing Kaspersky did last year was to interfere with US efforts to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions, he would have already earned himself a place on the list of the most dangerous people in the world, but there are other claims against Kaspersky. A longtime ally of the Russian intelligence services, he is a technical expert for the FSB, the successor to the KGB, whose agents are trained by his experts in computer forensics. When Kaspersky's son was kidnapped, the FSB came to his aid».
The second motive for including Kaspersky in the rating was his position on Internet control: “ Kaspersky has claimed that there is "too much freedom" on the internet and supported additional state control over social media, which he blamed in part for his son's kidnapping. A few months later, Russia passed a new law banning many categories of websites and requiring Russian telecom companies to introduce new ways to spy on users. Now Western intelligence agencies are scratching their heads, did Kaspersky's experts act 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 at the fact that Russian citizens cooperate with their state structures and top officials of the state is not clear. And given the fact that Kaspersky is a senior lieutenant of the Ministry of Defense, the claims of journalists generally look somehow ridiculous.
On June 18, 2009, the then President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting of the Commission on Modernization and Technological Development of the Russian Economy in the office of Kaspersky Lab. Yevgeny Kaspersky himself took part in the meeting of the commission, who made a report to its participants on the topic of the production of Russian software. The head of the laboratory gave the president a tour, showing the head of state a server room, an "iron room" where antiviruses are tested, as well as a virus laboratory where virus analysts manually catch viruses. The President considered the office of the Laboratory "interesting and modern".
The Biggest Guests already at the new office of Kaspersky Lab, which is located in the north-west of Moscow, were the General Secretary of Interpol, comrade Ronald Noble, and the head of the new Interpol cyber division, Noboru Nakatani, who just yesterday visited Evgeny Kaspersky on a friendly informal visit. Evgeny Valentinovich told about this from the pages of his blog (eugene.kaspersky.ru).
Probably, the main secret of Kaspersky's success can be considered the fact that he is madly in love with the business he does and considers work to be his hobby - “We still need to decide at school, somewhere in the middle classes, what is interesting, what really lights up the eyes, what I would like to do after school hours. Technology, beekeeping, forestry - whatever. The main thing is that it is yours. I don't know how else to feel happy. Option one: be yourself.
The statements of Evgeny Kaspersky will reveal the secrets of his success:
“I was lucky - my mother recognized my craving for mathematics when I was still a child. It has shaped my life in many ways. Seriously, I began to study science at the Physics and Mathematics School. It was great there. I did not want to return to a regular school, so I had to study well. Then I entered the Academy of Cryptography, where I also had to work 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 in order to achieve success, you need to know the materiel. After school, choose a more difficult educational institution - and go ahead.
“Don't be afraid to make mistakes, don't be afraid to experiment, don't be afraid to work hard! Perhaps nothing will work out for you, it is possible that circumstances will be stronger than you, but then if you don’t try, you will be bitter and insulted because you didn’t dare. If you try you have two options: either it works or it doesn't. And if you do nothing, there is only one option. ”
“Today I am a kind of walking man-brand. Frankly, 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 is quite a normal desire for any man.
“My theory of correct behavior: I call it “rabbit under the tree”. There are two behaviors: the first is to sit under the tree for the rabbit, [the second] is to run fast. So, if you are sitting under the 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 who is sitting under the tree. Here are the business secrets from Evgeny Kaspersky" -
“Lee Kuan Yew is the man who built Singapore. He was able to turn a state into a pearl, which was in a state of ruin and had the most deplorable appearance. And he achieved this by rather harsh methods. In some situations, rigidity is justified, because such impressive results cannot be achieved with softness. If you are kind, they will sit on your neck and force you to go in the wrong direction at all. But this is the case with the state. If we talk about the company, everything is more complicated. Neither democracy nor rigid despotism work. We need a middle ground."
Evgeny Kaspersky is an adherent of a collegial, exclusively democratic leadership style with maximum delegation of authority - “I have never been in day-to-day management. I don't like this. My task is to indicate the direction to the locomotive, i.e. properly delegate authority, and to ride ahead on a white horse with his head held high. Then the task of the driver and his assistants is to make the locomotive run along the rails along the given path. Success is the locomotive that pulls the cart behind it. And if things go well, there will always be enough coal in the cart for the firebox. I've never had any doubts in my life that I'm doing the right thing."
“The opportunity to retire has come up many times in my life. Once I was offered to move to a higher paying position in another antivirus company. Then there were persistent requests to sell Kaspersky Lab. But why should I? The idea of getting rid of the business, acquiring a desert island, sitting on the shore and throwing coconuts at sharks does not appeal to me.
“It's also about the specifics of our business. No matter how terrible the crisis is, even when things are going badly in the economy, no one will give up computers. Your car breaks down and you change to public transport. The laptop is out of order - you buy a new one, because you can't go anywhere without a computer. And at the same time, it must be protected from viruses and other troubles, otherwise it will stop working sooner or later.
“My attempts to learn to read e-books ended in failure. I can not. It doesn't work - that's all. I need a paper book, bound, not a soulless piece of iron with a touchscreen. I can't help myself. 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 so many years. I'm probably a very conservative person - but not in terms of technology and business. Name me at least one company that employs experts of the highest level who are qualified both in the technical field and in PR. And that's exactly what we have."
“What was dreamed about and what eventually came true - the essence of two big differences. But it doesn't bother me. I'm happy with how it all turned out. I am now in a position to finance bold, promising projects that are designed for the long term. I speak from high stands. But there is also the other side of the coin. I can’t afford from February to June and from September to December, when the most suffering begins in our business, to drop everything and go on vacation.”
“For me, money is the freedom to think more about the future than about the present, the freedom to experiment.”
“Do I have an unfulfilled dream? Of course, not alone. Speaking about business, my dream is that my company is included in the ranking of the 100 most valuable brands in the world. I want to go into space, go to Antarctica again. The wishlist is updated regularly. I believe that if a person is undecided, what is happiness and stopped dreaming, so he committed spiritual suicide.”
“Having made a mistake, I plead guilty. It's easier to live that way. This is by far the best thing a leader can do. His authority in the eyes of subordinates is only growing. After all, employees already know everything, why hide a pig in a poke? I'm not afraid to be wrong. If a leader 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 just to name the company by its name. Kaspersky Lab set out on a long and difficult voyage and there were many dangers ahead. How did the name of Kaspersky become a brand? Here is how Evgeny Valentinovich himself says 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 have always tried to be responsible personnel search and make products much better than others. This did not always work out, but sometimes it was possible, and the further, the more often. When we started an independent business, our products occupied only 5-10% of the Russian market. We were known only by specialists, experts. Year after year, the company's products and services won the recognition of the masses, and this was different in different countries. In Russia, we were initially known better, our brand was well received by the states close to Russia - the Baltic states, Ukraine, Israel, where 1/6 of the population comes from our country. It was hard to break into the English market because of British conservatism and a very cautious attitude towards new products - it took almost five years of hard work for the Kaspersky brand to be recognized in this market. It was easier in France and Germany, where people are more receptive to new technologies and really appreciate the quality of the goods. In the US and Japan, we are still almost unknown as manufacturers of finished products, although Kaspersky Lab has been selling its technologies in these countries for a long time, which are used in the programs of local companies.
At first, there was no strategy, they only thought about how to survive, they tried different ways to enter new markets. The standard strategy used by many of our competitors is as follows: a company office is opened in a new country, $1 million is invested in an advertising campaign, advertising messages appear on the pages of each computer publication. But often this does not work: a year passes, the advertising budget ends, advertising in the press disappears - and everyone forgets what kind of product it is.
Kaspersky Lab has taken a different path - from experts to mass users. First, we prove the superiority of our technologies to people who are well versed in them - technology partners who build our functional modules into their products. Then we offer the finished product to other categories of users, we start working with Internet providers. Through providers, the company enters small and medium-sized businesses and large corporations, and eventually home users are connected.
We use standard promotion tools: we arrange press conferences, PR tours, promotions, exhibitions, etc. In some cases, we entered the market immediately with a ready-made solution, a product - it turned out to be much more difficult than starting with technology licensing. It was not so much money that was lacking, but human resources - in order to conquer the whole world, you need a lot of good people. Now we have already penetrated almost all the markets we are interested in, and there is no need to invent new strategies.
Kaspersky is, first of all, the highest level of anti-virus protection for millions of users around the world. Moreover, its properties apply not only to our finished products, but also to the technologies licensed by us. 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 anticipate the situation, because I sometimes guess the trends in the virus world, the trends of 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. The third is the ability to assemble a team. And finally, just luck.
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There are biographies of people whose success is worth millions of dollars, the desires of bigwigs and accurate economic calculations. The biography that will be discussed today is different. Behind this success story is simple human courage, incredible dedication and faith in your star. This is the story of a man who believed in himself and created a corporation that is thundering all over the computer world today. I propose to you biography of Evgeny Kaspersky- "man-steamboat", which has become a brand.
It all started with the fact that one evening the senior lieutenant of the Soviet Army Evgeny Kaspersky was poking around in his computer. In the yard stood far, far away 1989 - a magical time when only advanced and initiated people knew about computer viruses. And it had to happen that just at that moment the virus under the name Cascade got on the computer of Evgeny Kaspersky.
Today, viruses are treated with lightning speed, but then you had to rely on your ingenuity and skills. No, not in vain, after all, Evgeny Kaspersky graduated from the Institute of Cryptography: he managed to “cure” a computer and ... enjoyed it. Yes, yes, as the future millionaire later admitted, it was on that evening that he realized that he had found his calling.
Do not rush to shout "Vivat" and immediately expect miracles. Evgeny Kaspersky still differed from thousands of Soviet officers only in that from time to time he undertook to “treat” other people's computers. Someone collected stamps, someone glued models, but Kaspersky fought viruses at home.
Over time, the hobby dragged Yevgeny more and more, and even a good rumor went about him in certain circles. This recognition was largely facilitated by the creation of our own. True, the program is too loudly said. Today, it would most likely be called an ordinary utility. And yet, the fight against viruses ceased to be just a hobby: for good money, he was offered to install his program on a batch of purchased computers. Further, such requests became regular and Kaspersky. Money has not yet flowed, but already loomed somewhere on the horizon.
On one of his first fees, Kaspersky did not go to rest on the Black Sea and did not “sit out” in restaurants, but took and published a book on computer protection. It did not bring him any money (and did not return the investment), but the status of a specialist for Kaspersky was firmly entrenched. A period of recognition, consultation and travel to special conferences began.
And then I had to choose: either conferences or the army. Success is good, but this success did not go well with shoulder straps. As a result, being at that time the father of two children, Eugene took a step into the abyss: he left the army, rushing towards the unknown. He was considered crazy and dissuaded, but Kaspersky already sensed his calling and went for broke.
Success is coming
In 1991, Evgeny Kaspersky got a job in the company " Kami”, which at that time did not even have an anti-virus protection department. Actually, Kaspersky itself became this department, since for a long time it was listed as its only employee. Did I already tell you that Eugene Kaspersky is a level 85 workaholic? Not? So, Eugene Kaspersky is a level 85 workaholic.
Having reached for his favorite viruses, with which he could already officially communicate during working hours, this person began to naturally burn himself. Without pity and "then I'll finish it."
Read this paragraph carefully for everyone who thinks that money in the IT field is easy and two days off a week is not enough. The owner of the company, which is now valued at $ 1 billion, allowed himself only two days off a month and at least 12 hours of daily work. Kaspersky worked in this rhythm for many years, and even today, when finances are almost unlimited and everything is fine with recognition, he remains the same workaholic. In the good sense of the word, of course.
Until 1994, everything was going not God knows how well. The anti-virus programs he developed for Kami were sold with a creak, which only made it possible not to go at a loss. The breakthrough came by chance: in 1994, his own program AVP won first place in a competition in Germany, having detected the most viruses. So that you understand the importance of the event: at this time there were already McAfee And Norton Antivirus. And Kaspersky Antivirus has become the best! A great reason for pride and a new portion of motivation.
Soon the era of the first contracts began: Evgeny Kaspersky began to conclude contracts with foreign companies. Naturally, this already brought quite different money. Workaholism is now paying off. And then there was 1996 and a contract with " 1C”, which only strengthened the situation. The business grew, but the triumph was still many kilometers away.
Of course, firewood was also broken with a margin. The main mistake of Kaspersky was that the rights to the AVP trademark were obtained only for Russia. Naturally, the more advanced Western comrades, quickly sensing the fatality of the mistake, stamped out a huge number of clones. Worst of all, it was unlikely that anyone would be held accountable. Eugene Kaspersky could have become limp and offended, but this only spurred him on and gave him invaluable experience.
The era of Kaspersky Lab
In 1997, Evgeny Kaspersky got stronger to independent swimming. He left "Kami" and founded the brand known today to the general public as " Kaspersky Lab". Again, don't rush to wait for bags of gold: so far it was a tiny company with a minimum of experience, a meager market share and huge plans, coupled with colossal ambitions. But patience and work will grind everything. Evgeny Kaspersky soon proved the truth of this saying by 100%.
In all subsequent years, Evgeny Kaspersky systematically went to success, capturing more and more new markets. Since the founding of the company, his strategy has been unchanged: each new market is conquered solely by advantages, and not by hidden marketing struggles. It took years for the name of Evgeny Kaspersky to become associated with success.
Sometime after 2005, the time of recognition began: the network grew stronger, the number of users grew by a snowball, products Kaspersky Lab became popular. Eugene Kaspersky undertook expansion to the West and East, moving the recognized masters of this niche. Today, the company has penetrated 200 countries and has earned prestige around the world. What Eugene Kaspersky so dreamed of achieving came true - his name became a recognizable brand.
In addition to dealing with viruses on you and workaholism, Evgeny Kaspersky also became famous as a talented organizer: he tirelessly rewards employees and introduces additional sources of motivation. And besides this, the creator of Kaspersky Lab donates a lot to charity and shuns publicity. As Eugene himself admits, he managed to get immunity from star fever even in the early stages of his career and now he calmly feels himself in the status of a multimillionaire.
In from and everything that I wanted to tell you about a man who did not spare himself and did not wait for manna from heaven. It is a pity that such, devoted to the dream, people are rare. And yet, while they are, this world is not hopeless!
Founder, head of antivirus research and CEO of Kaspersky Lab. Member of the Computer Virus Research Organization (CARO), in 2009 he was included in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation.
Evgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky was born on October 4, 1965 in Novorossiysk. Since childhood, the boy had an interest in mathematics, which his mother noticed and began to buy special books for her son. In 1982 he graduated from the Physics and Mathematics Boarding School No. 18 named after Kolmogorov at Moscow State University. In 1991, Kaspersky completed his studies at the Institute of Cryptography, Communications and Informatics at the Higher School of the KGB. As a student, in 1989 he took up the study of computer viruses. After graduation, Kaspersky served in the army, retired to the reserve with the rank of senior lieutenant. His first computer was infected with viruses, one of which Kaspersky decided to save on a floppy disk to find out how it works. The antivirus programs that existed at that time were primitive. Kaspersky studied the virus and wrote his own program to cure it. After some time, a colleague brought him a new virus, which he also managed to cure on his own. So he began to create anti-virus programs.
Until 1991, Kaspersky worked at a multidisciplinary closed research institute of the General Staff of the Russian Air Force. From 1991 to 1997, he developed an anti-virus project at the STC "KAMI". Since 1994, the product, which at that time was called the "-v" program, was named "AVP" (AntiViral Toolkit Pro). In 1997, Kaspersky and five other people from his team left KAMI and established their own company, Kaspersky Lab. By that time, the product of the "Laboratory", which had become a leader in the development of information security systems in Russia, entered the international market. However, their partner in the US trademarked the name "AVP" and began to position itself as its owner. As a result of the conflict, Kaspersky Lab lost the AVP trademark. In November 2000, "Laboratory" officially announced the change of the name and logo of the product, which received a new name - "Kaspersky Anti-Virus".
In 1994 Evgeny Kaspersky's wife, Natalya, came to KAMI as the director of the sales department. In the year when Kaspersky Lab was founded, she was appointed CEO. In 1997, the couple divorced, but continued to cooperate, and Natalya successfully promoted her husband's company in the Russian and international markets. Her merit was agreements with F-Secure (Finland), G-Data (Germany) and Vintage Solutions (Japan) and Russian "1C" and "Polycom Pro". In 1999, the first foreign representative office of the company, Kaspersky Labs UK, was opened in Cambridge, UK. In 2003 "Laboratory" opened representative offices in Japan and China.
Initially, Kaspersky Lab employed six people, but gradually it has grown into an international group of companies headquartered in Moscow, ten foreign representative offices and a staff of more than 500 people. At the beginning of 2002, the "Laboratory" expanded its scope of activities to protect users not only from viruses, but also from the entire set of threats to information security. At the end of the year, users were introduced to the personal firewall Kaspersky 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 development team of the Romanian anti-virus system RAV. In the annual report "An analysis of the market of anti-virus protection 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 sales of $60.2 million and a market share of 45 percent. In addition, Laboratoria announced that it plans to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in the spring of 2009.
In 2007, Kaspersky, who until then was only the head of anti-virus research, became the CEO of Kaspersky Lab, and his ex-wife was elected to the post of chairman of the board of directors. At that time, Kaspersky owned more than 50 percent of the company's shares, and Natalya - 30 percent. Kommersant argued that the organizational changes at Kaspersky Lab were related to the conflict between the former spouses: allegedly their opinions about the company's development strategy diverged. After Natalia learned that her powers could be terminated, she arranged for the removal of important documents from the depositary and canceled the second signature of the financial director, thus gaining full control over cash flows. Subsequently, she stated that the documents in the depositary were of no value, and the withdrawal of the signature was due to personal motives. Eugene Kaspersky declined to comment on this situation. Then Natalia was appointed to the post of CEO of InfoWatch, a subsidiary of Kaspersky Lab, a developer of systems for protecting confidential information from insiders. To get 50 percent plus one share of the company, she fired the CEO, Yevgeny Preobrazhensky, and put the top managers who owned a minority stake in front of the fact that their stake could be diluted during a future additional issue.
In March 2007, the Federal Tax Service (FTS) announced a tender for the supply of anti-virus software. In May, Systematics, which offered software from Kaspersky Lab, was declared the winner. In parallel, the "Laboratory" itself participated in this competition. However, in the end, on June 8, 2008, the tender was won by the Russian IT company LETA, which at first was almost removed from the tender (after the start of the tender, the Federal Tax Service announced that the product proposed by this company did not meet the conditions of the tender). "Kaspersky Lab" and "Systematics" decided to challenge the results of the tender. Kaspersky Lab filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court demanding to invalidate the decision of the Federal Tax Service, arguing that the tender for the supply of programs was held with violations, but the Lab lost the lawsuit.
In September 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appointed Kaspersky a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation by his decree.
Kaspersky is a member of the Computer Virus Research Organization (CARO), which brings together the most prominent experts in this field. He is the author of a large number of articles and reviews on the problem of computer virology, regularly speaks at specialized seminars and conferences in Russia and abroad. In 2007, Kaspersky was awarded the "Symbol of Science" medal. Kaspersky Lab won the Runet Prize 2007 for its contribution to the development of the Russian segment of the Internet in the Technology and Innovation nomination. In 2009, "for achievements in the fight against computer viruses, as well as achievements in the field of modern computer information protection systems," Kaspersky became a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology.
In 2007, the series "Network" was filmed, which tells about Russian hackers, in which Kaspersky made his debut as an actor. He also starred in a video prepared by Kaspersky Lab for the company's 10th anniversary global partner conference.
Evgeny Kaspersky is married for the second time, he has two sons from his first marriage, who study at Moscow State University. His hobbies include kayaking, skiing and mountain climbing.
Kaspersky Evgeny Valentinovich is not only the richest businessman with a personal fortune of $1.1 billion according to 2016 data. From the biography, we learn about him as a scientist, researcher, talented strategist and just an outstanding personality.
Clever, interesting and ... for some, even dangerous - all these are synonyms for the name Kaspersky Evgeny Valentinovich. The most famous Russian programmer, who became the Laureate of the State Prize in the field of science and technology and a world specialist in the field of computer and information security, this person has already made his name a household name. This year will be 20 years since Evgeny and his team save the world from cyber threats. Businessman Kaspersky, of course, is more famous for his anti-virus programs, but it is the history of the formation of a person who is not afraid of falls and unexpected twists of fate that deserves a separate story.
How it all began
The biography dates back to October 4, 1965 - on this day in Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Territory, the future computer genius appeared. Young Zhenya developed an interest in mathematics as a child - fortunately, his mother noticed this and tried her best to support it in her son. So the talented boy ended up in the Physics and Mathematics School No. 18, named after Academician Kolmogorov.
The educational institution was located at Moscow State University, but the graduate chose another alma mater for himself - the Institute of Cryptography, Communications and Informatics, which was located at the Higher School of the KGB. It was here that he became interested in cyberattacks. A little later, the fateful "meeting" of young Kaspersky and his ... first virus happened: the computer was infected with malware. But instead of destroying the uninvited guest, Eugene wrote the virus onto a floppy disk and began to study it in detail - as a result, he managed to write a program to treat it. A little later, another new virus was thrown to Kaspersky by a colleague - again, our hero neutralized a dangerous "raider" on his own. These incidents prompted the future IT security luminary to engage in antivirus programs.
Birth of Kaspersky Lab
Initially, Evgeny planned a career in the military sphere: after the institute there was a service in the army, from where he left as a senior lieutenant, and in 1991 he began work in a closed research institute at the General Staff of the Russian Air Force.
It was there that he began to develop his first anti-virus project. 1994 was marked by the creation of a product called AVP (AntiViral Toolkit Pro), which began to rapidly gain popularity. Three years later, AVP became a leader in the field of information systems related to security, and Kaspersky himself, together with a team of five people, went on an independent voyage, establishing his famous "Laboratory". At the same time, the anti-virus product enters the world market. And here the first trouble awaited him.
The American partner of "Laboratory" decided to play by its own rules, having registered AVP under the name of its own trademark. This allowed him to position himself as the owner of the development. Nothing helped - the conflict led to the loss of AVP. But this unpleasant situation became the impetus for the creation of a new well-known product of Kaspersky Anti-Virus.
Full speed ahead!
As we remember, Kaspersky Lab was initially founded by a group of six people, but over the course of several years the organization has turned into a group of international companies headquartered in Moscow.
The field of activity itself has also changed: consumers were offered not only anti-virus protection, but also the well-thought-out functionality of the company's information security. We are talking about Kaspersky Anti-Hacker (personal firewall), anti-spam system and other unique "guardians" of data.
The development of the structure went by leaps and bounds:
- The year 2003 was symbolized by the association with the Romanian partners dealing with RAV anti-virus programs.
- In 2007-2008, the company's turnover grew to 60.2 million dollars, which has since ensured its strong leading position in the market.
The special role of the first wife in business
The name of Evgeny's first wife, Natalya, is closely associated with the activities of Kaspersky Lab. She became the first CEO of the organization - such cooperation continued even after the divorce. Her task was to promote the company both domestically and on the international market - and Natalia did an excellent job of it. Agreements with Finnish, German and Japanese partners were the merit of Eugene's first wife. By the way, in the Russian Federation itself, with the help of Natalya, close ties were also established with 1C and Polik Pro.
A little more history: the first foreign representative office was opened in 1999 in
Great Britain, in Cambridge, and in 2003 a similar joyful event took place in China and Japan.
However, intra-family misunderstandings still affected the internal life of the company. The former spouses tried to keep the cash flows going through the organization in their hands: Natalya tried to take over the same share in the company that her husband had. All this continued until Natalia was appointed to the post of CEO in a subsidiary of InfoWatch (the company is also engaged in development, but in this case it is about protecting confidential information from insiders).
Extremely dangerous?
If they shot another film with the same name, then Evgeny Valentinovich could well play the main role in it (or act as a prototype). And it's all about the new title - Kaspersky is included in the list of the most dangerous people in the world according to the American Wired magazine of December 2012.
The honorable eighth place in such a "hit parade" (where there are only 15 places) was provided to the Russian programmer by his work aimed at neutralizing Stuxnet, Flame and Duqu - projects with which it was planned to attack large Iranian government and industrial facilities.
It is believed that the specialists who exposed the spyware worked for the famous Kaspersky. But from the point of view of American journalists, this is not all: it is believed that Yevgeny works in the interests of the FSB and his team is engaged in the technical training of the special services, assisting in the examination.
It is known that with the help of the Kaspersky team, in just three years (2012-2015), 160 Russian-speaking hackers were arrested. For reference: the damage caused by these cyberterrorists is estimated at 790 million dollars.
Many are unhappy with the fact that Eugene advocates control in the Internet area: Kaspersky believes that there is a lot of freedom there. He is especially vocal about controlling social media. And, by the way, his statements do not go unheeded - in Russia, some web resources are already restricted for visiting. Most likely, at the suggestion of our hero, who since 2009 has been a member of the Public Chamber for the Russian Federation (became such by decree of Dmitry Medvedev, who was president at that time).
By the way, about the cinema: Kaspersky has already made his debut there too - we are talking about the series "Network". In the "acting" summary, you can add a role in the video from the "Laboratory", which was prepared for the tenth anniversary global conference, which the company holds for partners.
That's not all the regalia: Eugene is involved in scientific research related to computer virology (he is a member of CARO). Our hero is happy to share his knowledge: he participates in events dedicated to the problem, writes a lot of scientific materials on the topic.
Evgeny's contribution is often recognized with awards: in 2007, the medal "Symbol of Science" became such (in the same year, the "Laboratory" itself was the winner of the "Runet Prize" in the nomination "Technology and Innovation"). And in 2009, Kaspersky himself was a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology.
Recent developments include the development of a secure operating system. Today, neither Microsoft, nor Apple, nor other communities have such. This system is planned for use in highly specialized (often "industrial") purposes, it will be impossible to win games and surf in social networks with it. This software will perform the strictly prescribed functionality. Therefore, such a thing cannot be hacked using third-party code, affect the system or program.
The details of the technology are not yet disclosed so that competitors do not know about it in advance. Something, as Kaspersky himself declares, will remain in closed access (confidential for customers) - this is necessary to protect against cyber-terrorists.
A tourist on a kayak
For all his busyness, Eugene bears little resemblance to "office plankton" - this is especially noticeable on the "Kaspersky Blog". And the programmer himself admits that his passion is kayaking and mountaineering. He was lucky to visit many beautiful corners of the planet: for example, Eugene loves climbing ... volcanoes.
Sports are also interesting - Evgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky acts as a sponsor in Formula 1 races, supporting the Scuderia Ferrari team. Another wards are Australian rugby players.
The company is involved in charity work: for example, after the Japanese tsunami, $1.5 million was donated to orphanages, hospitals and the Japanese Red Cross.
In personal life, everything is "excellent"!
It is this assessment that can be given to today's marital relations of Evgeny Valentinovich. He is married for the second time, and met his future wife while skiing. The wife fully corresponds to all the ideas of a businessman about women, embodying the mind and delicacy of character. She is an employee of the humanitarian sphere - the Institute of the Russian Language. A.S. Pushkin.
He maintained good relations with his ex-wife Natalya (part-time, co-founder of the "Laboratory") and sons Maxim and Ivan. And so good that families often rest together, each with their new family.
As for children, Maxim, the eldest son of a computer genius, did not want to follow in his father's footsteps - he chose the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University. And with the younger Ivan, a not very good kidnapping story is connected: the criminals grabbed the child from the subway and demanded a ransom of 3 million rubles. However, thanks to a special operation conducted jointly with the FBI, the criminals were caught and punished.
Apart from this unpleasant episode, the life of our hero is somewhat reminiscent of an interesting kaleidoscope: you never know what interesting event will be the next picture. One thing is clear: it will definitely be extraordinary, like Evgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky himself, whose biography will still be replenished with worthy discoveries and bright moments.
