Kaspersky Lab

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kaspersky Lab
Type Private
Founded 1997[1]
Founder Eugene Kaspersky
Headquarters Moscow, Russia
Area served Computer security
Key people Eugene Kaspersky
Natalia Kasperskaya
Vitaly Bezrodnykh
Industry Computer software
Products Security
Revenue US$85.3 million ▲76% (2006)[2]
Net income US$67.3 million ▲69% (2006)[2]
Employees 600 (August 2007)
Website Kaspersky.com

Kaspersky Lab (k ae s 'p з: s k i laeb) is a computer security company, co-founded by Natalia Kaspersky and Eugene Kaspersky in 1997, offering antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, and anti-intrusion products. Kaspersky Lab is a privately held company headquartered in Moscow, Russia with regional offices in Germany, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Poland, Romania, Japan, China, Korea and the USA[1].

In 2005, Red Herring magazine listed Kaspersky among "Red Herring 100 Europe", a selection of the 100 private companies in Europe and Israel that play a leading role in innovation and technology.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus engine also powers products or solutions by other security vendors, such as Check Point, Bluecoat, Juniper Networks, Sybari (now acquired by Microsoft), Netintelligence, GFI Software, F-Secure, Borderware, FrontBridge, G-Data, Netasq, and others. Altogether, more than 120 companies are licensing technology from Kaspersky, which makes it one of the most widely used antivirus engines in the industry.

Contents

[edit] Media claims

In early 2005, Kaspersky Labs revealed that it was contacted by "a user asking how to disinfect the onboard computers of several Lexus cars... The user said that the infection occurred via a mobile phone". [3]

On 5 April 2007, Kaspersky Labs claimed to have found a virus that infects Apple's popular iPod music player. The press release stated: "It should be stressed that in order for the virus to function, Linux has to be installed on the iPod." [4][5] Kaspersky Internet Security 7 and 2009 includes a built in option called "Roll-back" technology. When an infection is detected, it will give you the option to "Roll-back", which will take your computer back right before the infection was detected, so it is as if your computer was never infected. Having this option makes it able to get rid of threats other antivirus software cannot. An example being Smitfraud-C., which was an epidemic for most companies.

[edit] Products

See also: Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Kaspersky Internet Security, and Kaspersky Mobile Security
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009

The current line of Kaspersky products consists of Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS)2009, Kaspersky Anti-Virus (KAV) 2009, and Kaspersky Mobile Security (KMS. Kaspersky products are widely used in Eastern Europe and Asia, but have not been strongly marketed in North America and Western Europe. However, US-based magazine PC World recently awarded Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6 the Editor's Choice in its 2007 anti-virus comparative (partnered with AV-Test.org), a move which will likely result in more widespread use in the Western Hemisphere. For example, it is now being marketed by Sam's Club in tandem with the Symantec Norton product line, which has been more popular in the USA.

The latest line of Kaspersky products is certified for Windows Vista.

[edit] Independent assessments

The anti-virus software testing group Av-Comparatives gave the Windows XP version of Kaspersky AV an "Advanced+" rating (its highest) in both its February 2008 on-demand detection test (with the fourth highest detection rate among 16 products tested)[6] and its November 2007 retrospective / proactive detection test (with the second highest detection rate among 17 products)[7].

The firewall included in Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 got a Very good rating in Matousec's Firewall challenge [8], with a result of 85%. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0 has achieved a 6.5 result out of 8 in the Anti Malware Labs Rootkit detection test [9]. It has also achieved a 31 out of 33 detection of polymorphic viruses [10] and 97% result in Self-Protection test.[11]

According to an independent test center, Kaspersky Anti-Virus (formerly known as AntiViral Toolkit Pro) rates highly amongst virus scanners in terms of detection rates.[citation needed] In 2007 Kaspersky Internet Security 7 received an award from the British magazine PC Pro and also won a place in its "A List".[12]

In addition, Kaspersky has passed all Virus Bulletin comparative tests since August 2003. According to PC World magazine, Kaspersky antivirus software provides the fastest updates for new virus and security threats in the industry.[13] In the latest Av-Comparatives test, the Technical Release build of Kaspersky 2009 achieved a nearly 70% proactive detection rate.

[edit] Litigation

In May 2007, Adware distributor Zango filed a lawsuit against Kaspersky Lab, accusing it of trade libel for blocking the installation of Zango software. In August, the court ruled that the Communications Decency Act granted immunity to Kaspersky.[14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b About Us
  2. ^ a b http://www.cnews.ru/news/line/index.shtml?2007/07/23/259875. CNews. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
  3. ^ "Lexus automobile virus (urban legend)", Vmyths. 
  4. ^ "Kaspersky Lab discovers the first virus for iPod", Kaspersky Labs, 2007-04-05. 
  5. ^ Kaspersky Lab reports first iPod virus, sort of. Tech news blog - CNET News.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-25.
  6. ^ http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2008_02.php
  7. ^ http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2007_11.php
  8. ^ http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php
  9. ^ http://www.anti-malware-test.com/?q=taxonomy/term/7
  10. ^ http://www.anti-malware-test.com/?q=taxonomy/term/5
  11. ^ http://www.anti-malware-test.com/?q=taxonomy/term/16
  12. ^ "Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 receives two top awards in testing conducted by the British magazine PC Pro", Kaspersky Labs, 2007-04-05. 
  13. ^ "Anti-Virus Personal 5.0 (Full Product)", PC World Magazine, 2005-01-25. Retrieved on 2007-02-02. 
  14. ^ Zango tries, fails to sue its way out from under the "spyware" label. ars technica (August 30, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-05.

[edit] External links