In astrology – squares are bad news. They represent conflict. (How or why I might know this I’ll not share with you here. Cough.) But in IT-industry analysis – squares are good. Real good! To get into one of four squares – ok, they like to call them quadrants – and especially the best of the four (leader/visionary) is no mean feat, so breaking and entering a square – especially leader/visionary – is all the more fantastic.

We are now in three such quadrants (actually, one quadrant, one “scape”, and one wave) – those of Gartner, IDC, and Forrester. All three have unanimously made us “leaders” in the class of corporate endpoint security! But this isn’t just the usual round of yet more medals being fastened to the old KL lapel. Oh no. We’ve received the honored “triple crown” from the three most respected international analytical agencies. Incidentally, this crown has only ever been worn by one other – our competitor with the soft spot for all things yellow. Well, now the triple crown is a nice shade of green.

IDC MarketScape (*)

More: see you in quadrants!… ->

Ladies and gentlemen!

I’ve got some very good news! Well, at least, for some – particularly KL employees…

Our decade and a half of rented-office-space hopping has officially come to an end. Yep, we’ve finally done it – we’ve gone and bought an office building – rather, three. Well, better late than never, I guess. Anyway, just recently, the last of the last of the departments which were holding out at the old office (at Oktiyabrskoye Pole ([Red] October Field)) in the north-western suburbs of Moscow) have finally left it for good, turning up for work the next day at the new office, as can be seen in this photo – of our corporate admin elite and their favorite rubber plants:

Yup, we now have our own small piece of north-west Moscow, housing more than 1500 company HQ employees who’ve voluntarily signed up for careers in the fight against global cyberevil.

More: homes sweet homes…

At Plymouth University in southern England I was recently awarded an honorary doctorate of technology. So I’m now a doctor! And I’m now accepting patients’ congratulations!

More: Hogwarts, Dumbledore & why passengers clap after an airplane touches down …

This is a very unusual post. It’s not about cyber-crime, malware, our latest business achievements or my latest long journey around the globe. It’s about truth and facts, and the importance of not hiding certain facts while revealing others.

For sure I was surprised to read such an article from a journalist who, up until Monday, always seemed to maintain the highest of professional and ethical standards. And it goes without saying that, on behalf of my company and our 2400+ employees around the world, I have to object to Mr. Shachtman’s litany of inferences, opinions, omissions and errors.

We first got to know Mr. Shachtman early last fall, and then invited him to our headquarters in Moscow. After several meetings with me and our team members, during which we discussed many different current issues related to the security field, it appears Noah Shachtman thought that he was ready to tell the world the “truth” about Kaspersky Lab and me personally, and decided to produce an article for Wired Magazine. And he got off to a great start (the way he described me after practically 72 hours on planes (Cancun-Munich-Cancun) just to be there for the opening of the event was all very true – and to me very amusing). But unfortunately Mr. Shachtman forgot to include essential components such as key facts, independent international experts’ opinions, and independent marketing research agencies’ data. Not only did he forget to check his facts, in some cases he wrote almost the opposite of what I actually said in my numerous interviews with him over the past seven months.

I hope Noah tried to do his best and had no hidden agenda. But he unfortunately failed to present to you the whole truth. So I’ve decided to help him out.

Read on: What Wired Is Not Telling You – a Response to Noah Shachtman’s Article in Wired Magazine

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please!

Good news! After 3.5 years of legal battles with patent trolls we have finally won a resounding victory! This was our first patent litigation battle in the US and we won! // Well, we needed to make up somehow for Russia’s poor display at Euro 2012 :)

Here’s a recap.

Four years ago the patent trolls suddenly came on the scene trying to prove that we were using technology that had been patented by somebody else.

Because we were expecting this sort of thing, and knew all about patent trolls – albeit in theory – our very own patent department had for a number of years been quietly working away preparing our patent firepower in readiness for a showdown with all types of various patent trolls and black hats.

And then this story began, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. By the look of things, the situation was only going to get worse for us, but we had absolutely no intention of just giving in. Even if we lost, we were going to go down fighting and make it as brutal and bloody as possible for them.

And just a few days ago came the final denouncement.

The Court for the Eastern District of Texas announced its verdict in the case brought by IPAT and completely dismissed all the charges against us. What’s more, it did so WITH PREJUDICE, i.e. IPAT can’t bring any more claims regarding those patents!

But this is not just some ordinary legal victory.

More: An insight into troll business, US patent system and search for a solution…

Ciao all!

Oh how I love long haul flights – you can get through all your work you’ve been putting off for days or weeks, finally get through your latest book, watch a film you’ve had your eye on, study some geography through the window (I prefer to book a window seat), and intermittently in-between all that – simply catch some ZZZs – that is, if the plane isn’t being rocked around by turbulence, no one’s pestering with their phone calls or e-mails, and the stewardesses are only very infrequently offering meals or another Manhattan (for those who read my last post – you’ll notice I like to rotate my classic cocktails:).

I recently completed one such avia-marathon, from Australia to Italy, 35 hours door (of hotel) to door (of hotel), almost 22 hours in the air, and the rest of the time spent on connections and waiting in airports (with the usual war with Wi-Fi) plus road journeys between hotels and airports and vice versa. It all adds up to an absurdly long time spent on a journey – so long it looks like a record: I’ve never had a day and a half traveling before; that is, besides a couple of force majeure instances.

The second leg of the journey was the most interesting: we flew over India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Crimea, and then on to Romania and the rest of southern Eastern Europe to Italy. By the way, this completes my first time round-the-globe this year; my second one’s coming up soon. It’s a pity we only flew at night, since all I could see out of the windows were stars (Let There Be More Light!), then come the morning all that could be seen were the snow-covered Austrian Alps. Still, there was plenty going on in my booth inside the plane to make up for the lack of visible external scenery down below…

More: Something to read, watch and listen!

Australia. A huge territory, practically completely covered with desert, with thin inhabited zones along the coast. There are some populated areas inland, but not all that many.

The population of Australia is around 22 million (the 54^th largest in the world); GDP is almost a trillion US$ (18^th in the world – between Iran and Taiwan); and per capita income is US$40K (19^th – between Austria and Kuwait) (source: CIA World Factbook).

More: A fascinating, magical country …

Dag everyone!

In-between London and Moscow last week we managed to fit in a flying visit to Brussels, which didn’t even last a day, just 20 hours. Naturally, the first thing we did was make a beeline for the nearest bar for some Belgian beer. Oh yes – real nice. I believe Belgian beer to be one of the best in the world.

I’ve a real talent for photography. Beers, bulldog, and… JUICE?

Belgium is of course also famous for its chocolate, a peeing boy, and the Atomium, among other things. But on this trip all that was passed by; my schedule, as per tradition, was crammed full. Its highlight took place inside the European Commission building, where I secured myself a +1 to my list of live broadcasts I’ve been on on international TV channels. The new addition – on Euronews – now complements BBC World News, CNN, Bloomberg, Sky News, Russia Today, and a number of others.

More: Euronews Live and sudden auto-pilot jam…

More: If You Haven’t Seen Shibuya…. . .

As I’ve mentioned here before, tearing up the rulebook is an internal slogan of our marketing department. Sometimes the proverbial tearing up of the rules occurs in explosive fashion (for example when we recently arranged for a Japanese Awa Odori dance to be performed at the Barcelona Carnival); other times, the ripping up takes place at a calmer pace and over a longer term. Incidentally, there’s a completely separate format – that of our philanthropic initiatives; but we tend not to harp on about these too much.

Anyway, let me tell you about another rulebook-shredder of the calmer, longer-term kind…

For several years our “face” in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) was Jackie Chan. Everyone was pleased with this set-up, me included of course, and so we decided to continue in the same vein, but with a slightly different – Indian – slant, especially since KL’s prospects in this country are looking nothing less than spectacular. So in September 2011 we gladly announced that Sachin Tendulkar – the international cricketing legend – became our Brand Ambassador.

More: So, what’s all the fuss about?