Kaspersky makes a move to improve digital security
This column has long held that the missing ingredient in almost all new technology is trust. Security, privacy and protection are always bolted on as an afterthought. Most hardware and software makers get away with it, because we have traded trust for convenience. But it is slowly coming to haunt us, as holes in systems expose us to economic and political fraud, and both personal and national damage.
It was fitting, then, that France’s President Emmanuel Macron put trust at the centre of the Paris Call, a declaration issued at the Paris Peace Forum on Monday. It called on key players to improve trust, stability and security in cyberspace, and join in initiatives to strengthen security of digital processes.
By coincidence, the very next day saw the opening of the world’s first
Transparency Centre in Switzerland. Launched by information security provider Kaspersky Lab, it is designed to assure stakeholders that they can trust cybersecurity. Formerly based in Moscow, Kaspersky Lab moved its headquarters to Zurich this year to shake off fears that flying a Russian flag would compromise its ability to maintain the trust of Western clients.
The Transparency Centre is part of the Global Transparency Initiative announced by Kaspersky Lab last year. It will allow regulators, authorities and clients to examine the inner workings of the company’s software and processes.
Kaspersky Lab also announced the relocation of its data processing to a centre near Zurich. All malicious and suspicious files shared by users of its products will now be processed and analysed in Zurich rather than Moscow. When further analysis of source code is needed by the company’s software engineers and analysts in Moscow, it will be “anonymised” so that only the code itself is sent on, without sensitive content related to the client.
Why go to such extraordinary lengths? Simply, it cannot risk losing its 400-million customers and its position as Europe’s largest cybersecurity vendor.
“For us as a cybersecurity company, staying far away from politics is the only way to survive,” said Kaspersky Lab’s head of public affairs, Anton Shingarev, at the launch.
Company founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky added a further argument for keeping the analysts in Moscow while moving the business to Zurich: “Russian software engineers are the best and Russian cybercriminals are the worst. There are many cases when we are the very first company to intercept criminal activity, and the first to report it to the cybersecurity community and to victims, especially in financial services.”
The move was almost precisely what the Paris Call envisaged, said Eline Chivot, senior policy analyst at the Centre for Data Innovation in Brussels. She told Business Times: “In the absence of governments resolving these issues, private sector stakeholders must sometimes step up. This is one more example of how, in recent years, private sector leadership has grown in the digital economy.
“We can expect companies to be increasingly active in this space, especially without more government leadership. But it is imperative that government and industry work together to reduce the risk of cyberattacks.”
✼Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee
‘Russia’s software engineers are the best and its cybercriminals are the worst’