Eugene Kaspersky, the Antivirus Scientist Accused Spying Russia
- Kaspersky Blog
VIVA – Eugene Kaspersky is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the antivirus company Kaspersky. The idea for the company came from the Cascade Virus that attacked his device in 1989. Then, he created a program that identified and removed the virus.
At 12, Kaspersky studied advanced math at a night school for children. Entering what they considered the 'Olympics for children's math', he managed to take home second prize in his town.
Attending a math boarding school in Moscow in his teens, Eugene took a special interest in school computers. He took courses in physics and mathematics in a special program for gifted students organized by Moscow State University.
In 1987, Eugene Kaspersky graduated from the Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications, and Computer Science, where he studied mathematics, cryptography, and computer technology, majoring in mathematical engineering.
Eugene Kaspersky
- wikipedia.org
After graduation, Eugene worked at a multidisciplinary research institute and first began studying computer viruses after detecting the Cascade Virus on his computer in October 1989. Eugene analyzed the virus and developed a disinfection utility for it, the first utility he developed.
Moreover, in the early 1990s, Eugene Kaspersky started the ATP anti-virus project. Then a friend of his in Bulgaria asked to send him software for testing. But he made the mistake of writing the product as 'AVP'.
The product was a success and became popular. So, it was too late to return it to ATP and be known as AV, according to the Info Security Magazine website, Thursday, December 29, 2022.
"By 1992, I had recruited more people to help with software development, and we had a very innovative anti-virus back then," Eugene Kaspersky stated.
Two years later, tests at the University of Hamburg declared Eugene Kaspersky's AVP product as 'best on the list'. The product grew through international distribution and received a lot of interest from German companies.
"There was no money, but we were happy to have our product promoted. At the time, we were probably a team of four or five people, with no resources to control our distribution, finances, or sales results," he added.
He also had a bitter experience where an American man registered AVP as a trademark under his name, and started acting as a software vendor.
Then, in 1999, Eugene Kaspersky began negotiations to take back the trademark and website, but unfortunately, nothing came of it. So, he had to change everything, and start again. Eugene then registered 'Kaspersky' as a global trademark, designed a new logo and everything was new.
Virus research has always been an interest of Eugene Kaspersky who admits that he works not for money, but for fun. Even so, Kaspersky has also experienced a dark period because the German Cyber Security Agency, BSI (Federal Security Authority) March 2022 issued a warning about antivirus products from Kaspersky.
His company was said to be involved in hacking attacks amid the Russia Vs Ukraine war.
He didn’t stay silent, he sent an open letter, calling it speculation unsupported by any objective evidence or technical details. There is no evidence of Kaspersky's use or misuse for malicious purposes as alleged.
