| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software Security software |
| Founded | Moscow, Russia (1997) |
| Founder(s) | Eugene Kaspersky |
| Headquarters | Moscow, Russia |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Eugene Kaspersky (CEO) Natalia Kaspersky (Chairperson) |
| Products | Kaspersky Anti-Virus Kaspersky Internet Security Kaspersky Mobile Security Kaspersky PURE Kaspersky Open Space Security Integrated security |
| Revenue | US $480 million (2009)[1] |
| Profit | US $67.3 million 69% (2006)[2] |
| Employees | over 2,000 (March 2010)[3] |
| Website | Kaspersky.com |
Kaspersky Lab ( /kæˈspɜrski/; Russian: Лаборатория Касперского, Laboratoriya Kasperskovo) is a Russian computer security company, co-founded by Natalia Kaspersky and Eugene Kaspersky in 1997, offering anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, and anti-intrusion products. Kaspersky Lab is a privately held company headquartered in Moscow, Russia with regional offices in India, Germany, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Japan, People's Republic of China, South Korea, and the USA,[3].
In 2008, IDC ranked Kaspersky Lab as the fourth-largest global antivirus vendor.[4] Kaspersky Lab was also included in Software Top 100’s 2009 edition of the world’s software company rankings. Kaspersky Lab was listed 76th on the list,[5] and became the first Russian software company to be included on the list.
The 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, Clearswift, FrontBridge, G-Data, Netasq, and others. Altogether, more than 120 companies are licensing technology from Kaspersky.
Kaspersky Labs currently has Jackie Chan as their product spokesman.[6][7]
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The current line of Kaspersky home-user products consists of Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) 2011, Kaspersky Anti-Virus (KAV) 2011, Kaspersky Mobile Security (KMS) and AVZ Antiviral Toolkit, Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac, Kaspersky Password Manager, Kaspersky KryptoStorage.[8] In 2010, Kaspersky launched a consumer security suite named Kaspersky Pure. Kaspersky products are widely used throughout Europe and Asia. In the United States, Kaspersky Lab was ranked as the fastest growing internet security software,[9] based on NPD sales data.
In addition to the company’s consumer products, Kaspersky Lab offers a variety of security applications designed for small business, corporations and large enterprises. These offerings include security software to protect workstations, file servers, mail servers, mobile devices, and Internet gateways,[10] all managed through a centralized Administration Kit. These applications are also available in bundled security suites,[11] scaled to fit the requirements of organizations of varying sizes.
Kaspersky Lab products are available via retail stores such as Best-Buy, PC-World, Currys and online through the official Kaspersky eStore or Amazon.com and other retailers.
The latest 2009 line of Kaspersky products are certified for Windows Vista and are multi-core optimized.[12]
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).[13] However, in the Retrospective/Proactive Test May 2008, Kaspersky received the "Standard" rating, detecting 21% of new malware with 1-month old signatures and receiving a substantial amount of false positives.[14]
The firewall included in Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 got a "Very Good" rating in Matousec's Firewall challenge,[15] 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.[16] It has also achieved a 31 out of 33 detection of polymorphic viruses[17] and a 97% result in the self-protection test.[18] In 2007 Kaspersky Internet Security 7 received an award from the British magazine PC Pro and also won a place in its "A List".[19]
In addition, Kaspersky has almost passed all Virus Bulletin comparative tests since August 2003 (failed: June 7, Dec 07 and June 8[20]). According to PC World magazine, Kaspersky anti-virus software provides the fastest updates for new virus and security threats in the industry.[21] In the latest AV-Comparatives test, the Technical Release build of Kaspersky 2009 achieved a nearly 85% proactive detection rate, when including both heuristic analysis and HIPS.
In PC World magazine’s March 2010 comparison of consumer security suites, Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 scored 4.5/5 stars, and was rated second overall.[22]
Kaspersky has also received certification of their products through the OESIS OK Certification Program, which verifies that the applications are interoperable with third-party technology solutions like NAC and SSL VPN products from Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, F5 Networks, and others.[23]
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.[24]