Eugene Kaspersky, CEO Kaspersky Labs

Eugene Kaspersky (from the series: The IT Executives Gallery)

Given that I’d been running the AVID (Anti-Virus Is Dead) campaign, I expected my visit to Kaspersky Labs in Moscow to include a confrontational encounter with Eugene Kaspersky. It didn’t pan out like that. Kaspersky Labs was already deeply aware of the weaknesses in AV technology that I’d been ranting about and was moving to address them. So instead we had a useful discussion about the whole field of IT security.

Kaspersky Labs is, at the time of writing, a rapidly growing and successful AV company that is gradually widening its portfolio to become an enterprise player in the security space. Current revenues (2007/2008) are in the $200 million area. It is wholly owned by its executives and it was founded entirely on what was once a lonely effort by Eugene Kaspersky’s to write his own antivirus programs.