Alexander Lebedev, head of Competitive Product Intelligence at Kaspersky Lab, giving a presentation at the conference.
By Pradeep Palat/Lisbon
Internet service providers (ISPs) have a very important role to play in providing online security, Alexander Lebedev, head of Competitive Product Intelligence at Kaspersky Lab, one of the leading IT security vendors in the world, said.
“ISPs are the last point which connects the customer to the worldwide web and they have a critical role to play in providing security to online customers. We are working with many ISPs in the Gulf region to provide threat solutions,” Lebedev told Gulf Times on the sidelines of a conference on cybersecurity organised by Kaspersky Lab in Lisbon, Portugal, last week.
“When we create a technical mechanism on how a malicious traffic is filtered, we usually protect a set of resources. And when we do this, we usually depend on domain names. When there is an attack on a particular resource under a domain name like .com or .net, we can redirect it to our cleaning centres. But in many instances the attackers target only a certain set of IP addresses. In such situations, we need the help of the service providers to block such attempts to attack these IP addresses. So, here the role of ISPs is crucial,” he said.
Lebedev declined to name the ISPs in the region they are working with because “this is something related to the technical process that we are now in, in terms of setting up cleaning centres in the region and as soon as they are ready we can talk more about it.”
Asked what makes Kaspersky different from other IT security solutions providers, Lebedev said, “We have been named a ‘leader’ in providing end-point protection by the Big 3 analytical agencies, namely Gartner, IDC and Forrester. Firmly positioned at the third position, we have been continuously improving our market position. And we are the only 100% private company to have achieved this position.
“According to top-three protection rating that is based on the results of a series of independent evaluations of security solutions, our products ranked higher in more professional tests than any other vendor’s in the year 2013 and 2014. Kaspersky Lab’s solutions were awarded top three positions in 71% of the tests conducted. We also outperformed our rivals taking first place and Gold Medal in 55% of the tests.”
Lebedev said the Middle East region is very important and strategic for Kaspersky Lab and many experts of the company are working in the region. “We do a lot of localisation of our products like translating them into the local languages and allowing customisation to suit them for local use. But in certain aspects a complete isolation is not possible as the region is so much connected with the rest of the world, both online and offline.”
Kaspersky Lab’s flagship products are Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business, Kaspersky Small Office Security, Kaspersky Total Security – Multi Device, Kaspersky Internet Security – Multi Device.
Besides these, the company also provides intelligence services such as Cyber-security Education, threat data feeds, botnet threat tracking and intelligence reports.
“We are also searching for growth opportunities in enterprise security, especially in the area of critical and industrial infrastructure protection, which requires products and technologies that fit the specific needs of industrial networks,” Lebedev added.
