Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab - Charismatic virus hunter

Yevgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky got interested in cyber security by accident, when his computer was attacked in 1989 by the Cascade virus. His knowledge of cryptography helped him analyze the virus, understand it, and develop a tool to remove it. Curiousity and passion for computer technology guided him toward further research of malignant programs and development of antivirus modules. In the end, this collection of tools became the foundation stone for the company Kaspersky Lab whose database is one of the most comprehensive ones in the world of cyber security today, protecting systems from more than 100 million malicious programs.
Eugene (Yevgeny) Kaspersky was born 1965 in Novorossiysk, part of the Soviet Union at the time. He developed an interest in mathematics while he was still a kid and later, while at school, he attended extracurricular classes in advanced mathematics and physics on a special course organized by the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1987, he graduated from the technical faculty of the KGB Academy in Moscow, which was renamed to the Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications and Computer Science in 1992. This was one of the best math schools in the world in that time, and one of the sponsors of the department Kaspersky was student in was the Defense Ministry of the Soviet Union.

His major was mathematical engineering, but he also focused on cryptography and computer science. When asked why he didn't pursue career in that field, he replied he was not "smart enough to be a cryptologist". Following the dissolution of SSSR, Kaspersky got a job at the Information Technologies Center (JAMI), where he began gathering a team of peers, enthusiastic researchers, to create the AVP Toolkit Pro antivirus program. The University in Hamburg recognized this software as the most efficient antivirus in the world in 1994.

Kaspersky and his colleagues then decided it was high time they established their own company. Kaspersky Lab was formed 1997, when Eugene assumed the position of the Head of Research and Development at the company and held it until he was named its chief executive officer in 2007.

Today, Kaspersky Lab is a giant on a global scale and ranks among the top four manufacturers of security solutions for end-users in the world. It operates in nearly 200 countries and territories worldwide, employing more than 3,000 IT security professionals and specialists, and its products protect over 400 million users. The company's annual profit is at USD 771 million.

Eugene Kaspersky lives in Moscow with his third wife and has four children. Business success gave him access to the world's billionaires club, but it also made Kaspersky a target, resulting in his 20-year-old son Ivan getting kidnapped in April 2011. Upon negotiating with kidnappers, Kaspersky paid the ransom, and his son was freed unharmed. Ever since, no member of his family has left their estate without a bodyguard.

He is a frequent guest lecturer at the most elite universities around the world, and he also won numerous awards, the most significant of which are the Russian Federation National Award in Science and Technology, which he received in 2009 from then President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, and the Friendship Award granted to him by the People's Republic of China. He was also declared the Businessman of the Year several times, while an Honorary Doctorate of Technology degree was awarded to him by Plimouth University in 2012.

People who know him say Eugene Kaspersky is a charismatic man, fan of speed cars, exotic travels and adrenaline sports. These passions of his are probably a reason why the Kaspersky Lab company has been an official sponsor of the Ferrari team in Formula 1 since 2010. He also writes a blog about his travels, and one of this favorite destinations is the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia.

Kaspersky

Yevgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky

Eugene Kaspersky

Kaspersky biography

Kaspersky

Kaspersky Lab

cyber security

IT security

virus Cascade

computer virus

antivirus program

Novorossiysk

SSSR

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

KGB

KGB Academy

Defense Ministry of the Soviet Union

AVP Toolkit Pro

University in Hamburg

Dmitry Medvedev

Plimouth University

Ferrari

Formula 1

the Kamchatka Peninsula