Kaspersky Lab

Infobox_Company
company_name = Kaspersky Lab
company_
company_type = Private
genre =
foundation = 1997 [http://www.kaspersky.com/about About Us ] ]
founder = Eugene Kaspersky
location_city =
location_country =
location = Moscow, Russia
origins =
key_people = Eugene Kaspersky
Natalia Kasperskaya
Vitaly Bezrodnykh
area_served = Computer security
industry = Computer software
products = Security
services =
revenue = US$85.3 million profit76% (2006)cite web |url=http://www.cnews.ru/news/line/index.shtml?2007/07/23/259875 |title=http://www.cnews.ru/news/line/index.shtml?2007/07/23/259875 |publisher=CNews|accessdate=2007-07-23]
operating_income =
net_income = US$67.3 million profit69% (2006)
num_employees = 600 (August 2007)
parent =
divisions =
subsid =
owner =
company_slogan =
homepage = [http://www.kaspersky.com Kaspersky.com]
dissolved =
footnotes =

Kaspersky Lab (pronounced IPA|) is a computer security company, co-founded by Natalia Kasperskaya 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, Sweden, Japan, China, Korea and the USA.

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.

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". Lexus later said they had investigated the virus rumor and determined it to be without foundation. [cite news |url=http://www.vmyths.com/hmul/3/11/ |title=Lexus automobile virus (urban legend) |publisher=Vmyths]

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." [cite news |url=http://www.kaspersky.com/news?id=207575511 |title=Kaspersky Lab discovers the first virus for iPod |publisher=Kaspersky Labs |date=2007-04-05] [cite web|url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-6173682-7.html|title=Kaspersky Lab reports first iPod virus, sort of|publisher= Tech news blog - CNET News.com|accessdate=2008-05-25|last=|first=] 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.

Products

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 are certified for Windows Vista.

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) [ [http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2008_02.php Anti-Virus comparative February 2008 ] ] Fact|date=July 2008 and its November 2007 retrospective / proactive detection test (with the second highest detection rate among 17 products) [ [http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2007_11.php Retrospective Test November 2007 ] ] Fact|date=July 2008.

The firewall included in Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 got a Very good rating in Matousec's Firewall challenge [ [http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php Results and comments - matousec.com ] ] , 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 [ [http://www.anti-malware-test.com/?q=taxonomy/term/7 Anti-rootkit tests | Anti-Malware Test Lab ] ] . It has also achieved a 31 out of 33 detection of polymorphic viruses [ [http://www.anti-malware-test.com/?q=taxonomy/term/5 Anti-Malware Solutions Test Results | Anti-Malware Test Lab ] ] and 97% result in Self-Protection test. [ [http://www.anti-malware-test.com/?q=taxonomy/term/16 Self-protection test | Anti-Malware Test Lab ] ]

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.Fact|date=May 2008 In 2007 Kaspersky Internet Security 7 received an award from the British magazine PC Pro and also won a place in its "A List". [cite news |url=http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/news?id=207575604 |title=Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 receives two top awards in testing conducted by the British magazine PC Pro |publisher=Kaspersky Labs |date=2007-04-05]

In addition, Kaspersky has almost passed all Virus Bulletin comparative tests since August 2003(failed:June 07,Dec 07 and June 08 http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/results?vendor=VE15). According to "PC World" magazine, Kaspersky antivirus software provides the fastest updates for new virus and security threats in the industry. [cite news |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,124493-page,1/article.html |title=Anti-Virus Personal 5.0 (Full Product) |publisher=PC World Magazine |date=2005-01-25 |accessdate=2007-02-02] 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 Host-based Intrusion Prevention System methods. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 got a 6.0 rating(the highest rating) by the UK magazine PC PRO [1|url=http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/215343/kaspersky-antivirus-2009.html|title=PC PRO review of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009]

Litigation and incompetent behavior

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. [cite web |publisher= ars technica |url= http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070830-zango-tries-fails-to-sue-its-way-out-from-under-the-spyware-label.html |title= Zango tries, fails to sue its way out from under the "spyware" label |date= August 30, 2007 |accessdate= 2007-09-05]

Kaspersky Antivirus and Kaspersky Internet Security version 2009, forces users to uninstall Spybot during installation process, although there is no serious incompatibility yet known. The discussion was concluded in the Kaspersky forum, which said not to install Spybot at all. Kaspersky seems to be reluctant to fix the issue although they have received several complaints. [http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=33577]

References

External links

* [http://www.kaspersky.com Official website]
* [http://forum.kaspersky.com/index.php? Official Forum]
* [http://www.kasperskyclub.com Official Fanclub website]