More: 2013 Competition.. . .

I give you the new model of the Red Snowmobile!

Italy (and most of Europe) is buried under snow and frozen solid. It meant that the brand new Ferrari F1 car was unveiled online this year – the guests just couldn’t get there, myself included. I’m enjoying the photos of a severe Italian winter from the airport in Cancún.

// you can come up with your own captions :)

Cars and the climate collide….

And here’s a video of the presentation:

You can find out more about our partnership with Scuderia Ferrari at a dedicated webpage or follow the updates on Facebook and Twitter.

She has made it!!!

Read more: Who is she? …

A big hello from Austria!

This trip, not to mention this year, has got off to a very good start – we have been named AV-Comparatives’ Product of the Year!

Read more: Here’s my take on the world of AV testing …

And so I continue with series on some of the lesser-known, fruitiest features to be found in our products. This time I’ll be concentrating on whitelisting – a completely different approach to malware protection, which at the moment is included in KIS, PURE, and the new generation of our corporate products.

So why did I choose this seemingly techie term that could frighten off a respectable non-overly-techie reader from the very beginning?

The answer is quite simple:  in a way whitelisting is pretty much revolutionary for the industry – based on a totally new paradigm, which goes far beyond traditional pattern-based technology. As a result this a great opportunity for the anti-malware industry to be one step ahead in the battle with cyber-criminals, and for you – to be better protected against unknown threats. And in fact whitelisting is not that techie – see for yourself below!

So, what is whitelisting?

A list written in correction fluid? Such a thing may exist, erm, I guess. But no, KL’s whitelisting is something a little different.

More: A technology that brings some fresh air to the anti-malware industry …

– or why have we decided to withdraw from the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

Hi all!

Recently the US blogosphere has become increasingly alarmed by the new Anti-Piracy Act – Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA. Discussions of the topic are, to put it mildly, quite frank, with comments like: “These idiots are coming for your internet” (read here).

What is SOPA?

It is support for and development of something that is currently very relevant – the protection of intellectual property. Ladies and gentlemen, this really is important! “Thou shalt not steal,” as the Bible says! An author – or more often than not, a team – spends sleepless nights writing a book, composing music, shooting a film, creating software or testing software packages. Doesn’t that deserve a financial reward? Yes or no? Think before you answer – someone could well ask the same question about your profession… So?

More: A vinyl-age law for Internet? …

I am really excited about interviewing my guest today – Stephen Orenberg. This is a special man I both very much respect and admire for his business talent, besides being the perfect gentleman, of course. Steve performed nothing less than a miracle for the company’s U.S. operations, transforming the business from a lesser-known start up into one of the major players in a mature and crowded market.

Actually, this is the third company in the security industry he has worked for. Steve started U.S. operations for Dr Solomon’s Software in 1995 (later the company was acquired by McAfee), and just prior to joining Kaspersky Lab he held a similar role at Sophos.

When he came to the company in 2004 it was to start the business in the U.S. and get it up and running. Now, more than six years later, as Chief Sales Officer Steve is responsible for all sales and business development activities in North America and Western Europe. He has also been a member of the Kaspersky Lab board of directors since 2007.

As Chief Sales Officer, he now has the ambitious goals of, first, launching corporate solutions in the company’s two key markets, and second, contributing substantially to strengthening our global market positions so we can become the world’s #1 anti-virus vendor. And I have honestly no doubt we can do this. Just wait and see!

Steve, it’s been quite a long time we’ve been working together. Please remind me of how we first met and what your first impression of the company was.

See more > How we made our way to No.1 in U.S. retail?

Check out this photo I found in the local paper La Gazzetta Sportiva. Alonso looking cool – but look at the background!

The start of the race was really crazy… The adrenalin was pumping like mad (in the stands too).

See more > Did you know what F1 pilots drink before the start? …

My special guest today is Nikolay Grebennikov, the company’s Chief Technology Officer.

He is probably the most illustrative example of how a hard-working, results-driven professional can wind up in a fast-growing business environment. Indeed, his career path resembles somewhat the classic search for and reaching of the American Dream, since he’s achieved a breathtaking career rise. A significant step in this rise at KL came in the form of an unexpected job change – to go and run the company’s software development department – which resulted in the rolling out of a new generation of security products that became the foundation of our tremendous success on the global market.

Judge for yourself: a typical 33-year old yuppie who barely made his way through KL HR in the first round, but who quickly proved himself and gained weight in the company, proving his ability to lead the most sophisticated of projects, and ultimately going on to lead the R&D department – our largest unit – comprised of more than 830 employees.

He’s certainly a workaholic – but only in the positive sense of this word. At first I was rather pleasantly surprised to come across him working in the office at weekends. After a while I realized he was working seven days a week all the time! Not long ago he changed this overdoing-it habit and now works the standard five working days – but still late into the nights.

Nikolay doesn’t really do banter, so when circumstances force him to engage in small talk in the back of his mind I’m sure he thinks about how he could be making better, more productive use of his time. He’s a man of action and efficiency (can’t complain there!). When speaking he is very concise, specific and to-the-point. This is something you’ll surely notice in this interview.

Short Bio

Nikolay joined the company in 2003 as a systems analyst for the Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Workstation 5.0 project team, and within six months was heading the Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 team.

He was then appointed Deputy Director of Innovative Technologies in charge of all new research, including proactive defense, heuristic detection, and defense against data leaks, keyloggers and rootkits.

From 2009 Nikolay has been Chief Technology Officer, managing the company’s research and development.

Before joining Kaspersky Lab, Nikolay worked as a device driver developer, database programmer, general software programmer, and project manager for several IT companies based in Moscow.

He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Bauman Moscow State Technical University based on his work on information security. He was recently shortlisted as one of the world’s top 100 most influential voices in IT security. Nikolay is a passionate chess player and was the only person in KL who drew with Anatoly Karpov in a multiplayer game during the recent Security Analyst Summit.

You can learn more about him here.

So Nikolay, how did you get to start working at the company?

I responded to an ad in the paper and came for an interview. At first they didn’t want to employ me!

See more > Career, family and chess

As everyone knows, Google is not your average company. It fairly amazes and amuses with its short history of fantastic success (or instills fear and loathing – if Google happens to gobble up your market share). Its totally unexpected projects and even the design of its offices appear mad-hat, slightly odd, or uniquely original, depending on your particular view, but never just average.

Then there are the totally bizarre Googlized numbers.

Let’s start with some amusing arithmetic available from different sources.

At Google they don’t joke with the size of their figures, but do joke – big-time – with which particular figures they use: For its IPO in 2004, the price of the stake sold on the stock market should have come to 2.718281828 billion dollars, which figure is the mathematical constant e. A year later the company sold on the stock market another stake, made up of 14 159 265 shares – a fraction of pi accurate to eight decimal places.

Read more > More numbers madness and spooky comments!