Cyberattacks are one of the most likely high-impact threats facing both businesses and consumers in the modern world. Every day, billions of people access and share information online. Data moves constantly among businesses, employees, customers and suppliers, all over the world, but as we become increasingly more connected, access to real-time threat intelligence has become imperative.
Kaspersky Lab research experts now analyse over 325,000 new malware files each day, an increase of 10,000 per day from 2014. To help customers and partners identify, defend against and eradicate these emerging threats, Kaspersky Lab has announced the opening of its first European Research Centre in London, UK. Based within the company’s European Headquarters in Paddington, the research centre will provide both customers and partners with actionable and unique insight from Kaspersky Lab experts, both in the UK and Europe.
The opening of the first research centre within Europe further strengthens Kaspersky Lab’s fast-growing international footprint, adding to the company’s existing network of research hubs in Russia, USA, and China. Strategically positioned at the heart of the UK’s business capital, the launch of the new centre ensures that the cybercrime landscape is monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, keeping customers informed of the latest threats as early as possible.
The new research centre will be a UK home to those on the frontline of the ongoing battle against cyberthreats, including the UK members of Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), as well as the wider anti-malware team. Researchers at the European centre will work closely with colleagues in other Kaspersky Lab hubs across the globe to share insight and understanding of the latest malicious threats affecting organisations and individuals every second of every day, providing organisations with the actionable intelligence they need to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.
“The launch of the new research centre reinforces our ongoing commitment to research and development (R&D). We have made it our goal to ensure that customers are provided with access to timely information as and when they need it, as a result threat intelligence is the backbone of what we do. It’s in our DNA and is an integral part of our strategy. Over a third of our employees are R&D specialists, while our Global Research and Analysis team leads the world in the analysis and containment of major international cyber-espionage campaigns,” said Nikita Shvetsov, Chief Technology Officer at Kaspersky Lab.
Shvetsov added: “We’re determined to detect and neutralise all forms of malicious programs, regardless of their origin, purpose or target; whether that be governments, organisations, consumers or critical infrastructure. The new research centre will provide another hub to continue this ongoing global fight against cybercrime and provide customers and partners with the knowledge they need to anticipate the dangers that lie ahead in the coming years.”
Alexander Moiseev, Managing Director of Europe, Kaspersky Lab summarised: “The fight against cybercrime is now a global issue. Security has no borders, so it is vital that we have research hubs in all major regions worldwide. The new European research is another significant step in internationalisation strategy and our ongoing battle against cybercrime. In an era when cyber threats are increasing both in volume and sophistication, timely access to information is central to maintaining effective protection of data and networks.”
The launch is another milestone in what has been an impressive couple of years for the company. In the past 12 months alone, Kaspersky Lab has announced discoveries of a number of global advanced persistant threats (APTs) including CozyDuke, which targeted high profile entities including the White House; DarkHotel, an espionage campaign targeting C-suite executive’s at luxury hotels; Carbanak, a malware used by a multinational cybercriminal gang to steal almost one billion American dollars from financial institutions across the globe; Equation Group, a cyber-espionage campaign that targeted thousands of high-profile victims globally and Desert Falcons, the first known Arabic cyber-espionage group targeting multiple high profile organisations.
Kaspersky Lab also recently announced cooperation with Swedish bio-hacking community BioNyfiken, to understand and analyse the risks of connecting our bodies to the Internet. It has also made a number of enhancements to its product portfolio over the past couple of years, including new products such as, Kaspersky DDos Prevention, Kaspersky Fraud Prevention, Critical Infrastructure Protection, as well as threat intelligence services including threat data feeds, intelligence reports and cyber security education for large enterprises.
Vittorio Boero, CIO, Ferrari, added: “When you’re one of the world’s biggest brands, safety, accuracy and availability of data is crucial and you can’t afford to take any risks. Kaspersky Lab is supporting us with their world-leading knowledge of malware and cybercrime, meaning we are able to stay several steps ahead, whatever the scale of the threat.”
Kaspersky Lab has representative offices in 30 countries on five continents, and operations in close to 200 countries and territories worldwide. Its customer base is growing at a rate of more than 20 million product activations a year.
