Which airline to choose to get from Madrid to Guatemala was a no-brainer: practically the only airline to fly direct is Iberia. It’s like, why would we fly with a connection – heaven forbid a North American one? :)

So off we popped, direct to Central America…

The first bit of land on the other side of the Atlantic was Haitian (I think), and then came Jamaica. Over the mainland we flew over Honduras, and next up was our country of destination – Guatemala.

Honduras coming into view

Incidentally, Honduras – why’s it called Honduras? You can find out here. It appears there are two alternative versions. The first starts:

In Spanish, the word “honduras” means “deep waters” or “depths”. It is a peculiar name for a country, but there is also a peculiar story behind how our country got this name.

You have reached your destination

Not everyone (who lives outside Central America maybe) is able to point out Guatemala on a world map. Not everyone knows it’s in Central America even – many think it’s in South America. But no, Guatemala is the quintessential Central American country – the most central Central American country, in fact.

It sits neatly between Honduras, Salvador, Belize and Mexico. Firther to the south there’s also Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and then Columbia and Ecuador.

I flew over this nest of cuckoos curiosity a while back. Unfortunately that was at nighttime so I saw nothing at all of it. This time things were different:

Volcanism on the horizon. My cup of tea

A Fuji competitor!

Turns out there are 33 volcanoes here, three of which, I’m told ‘represent a threat’. That makes sense: this part of the world’s seen plenty of volcanic activity in its time, some of it very sad. For example, in the sixteenth century Agua destroyed the first capital of the country; and in 1965 Pacaya blew its top violently and has been erupting constantly ever since.

And right now Fuego‘s causing all sorts of problems for the locals. And on the first night after we arrived there was even an earthquake! I missed it as I was in a jetlag-compensating deep sleep. Not sure if that was a good or bad thing.

We went for a walk up Pacaya while in Guatemala; not to the top – it’s smoking like a bar steward right now up there – but around the old crater near it. Impressive. So impressive in fact that it warrants a post of its own. I wasn’t expecting that there’d be a lot to report back on from here – I was proved wrong!

All the photos are here.

Back soon folks!…

Some ten-plus years ago, our then still quite small company decided to push the boundaries – literally: we went transnational. Before long we found we had expert-analyst KLers working in all corners of the globe, all of them communicating with one another by email, messengers, telephone and other indirect means. Nothing wrong with that really, but still, it’ll never beat face-to-face interaction. So we decided to have a yearly jamboree where we’d all get together and top up on the much needed proper face time. That was when our annual conference for IT security experts was born: the Security Analyst Summit (SAS).

Read on: Work hard, play hard, like always…

February 15-18, 2015 is fast approaching…

Over those four days we’ll be having our annual (seventh) conference on information security, whose main topic will be modern-day cyberattacks and protecting against them besides a whole load of other assorted cyberthreat themes. The winter summit in warmer climes, this year in Cancun, Mexico: the Security Analyst Summit 2015 (SAS).

So, just remember, the main security industry hashtag of mid-Feb this year is this one: #TheSAS2015

(No security experts were harmed during the shooting of this video)

SAS is an exclusive, invite-only gig, with only the cream of the world’s crop of top IT security movers and shakers taking part. It’s not massive – it’s more intimate, which means it’s more meaningful and more gets done – and twice as engaging and interesting for all participants. But don’t feel left-out by this guest-list-only cliquishness. Opaque – us? :). Just about all what’s discussed we’ll be swiftly publishing as tweets and blogposts (see the hashtag above and the blog links below).

Meantime, if you want more detail about what goes on at SAS and some SAS history, have a read of this.

This year’s bash promises lots of very interesting content, including a world premiere or two plus other important announcements, as per tradition. The main themes are targeted attacks and cyber-militarization, and how to combat both. Also on the agenda are: mobile malware, vulnerabilities management, cyberattack analysis methods, intra-security-expert-industry cooperation, and more besides.

There’ll be both presentations of the ‘for all’ format, and also highly specific, specialized ones for the pros (like for example reverse engineers). And there’ll be a special bit this year on protecting critical infrastructure – which promises to be very useful due to both the timeliness and the number of top-notch experts who are going to be taking part.

Have a look for yourself: the program’s ready and online already.

As per tradition, we recently had our New Year/Christmas blowout – the kind of party other, duller companies tend to call their ‘corporate do’. That hardly describes what we have though – and more and more so every year…

Last Friday some 1700 KLers and scores of guests from around the world all gathered in Moscow’s massive Olympic Stadium for our mega-bash. We ate, drank and were merry; we danced, bantered and awarded each other prizes; we took part in – or watched – the sublime ice spectacle and KL-stage show (in which around 110 employees took part); then danced some more, then some more again… all to wind up the year as is only right and proper – and usher in the next and even better 12 months.

Read on: Full 100 grams of pure Christmas creative partying decadence…

Ireland does IT real well – it both understands it and supports it. But it doesn’t just attract and help out ‘adult’ tech businesses, it also does its bit with IT-incubators and supporting  IT startups. But I waxed lyrical about all that a year ago.

// Ireland’s also seriously into pharmaceuticals, but I won’t be discussing that today. Pharmaceticals to me are like a parallel universe (and the term ‘pharma’ mostly reminds me of the illegal drugs trade on the Internet.

So here I was at the Web Summit exhibition-conference in Dublin, November 2014.

Among other things, Web Summit is a yearly gathering for all sorts of different IT-startups, which come here in search of partners and investors. It really is the place to come if you’re a budding IT ‘infant’-company with loads of ideas and plans and dreams but no money. IT-infants (plus investors and large business) come here from all over the world.

Here’s what it looks like:

Nano-stands :)

Read on: I see pink sheeps!!…

Hi folks!

Here I am in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to attend this year’s INTERPOL General Assembly. I love this place. I’ve been here several times before, but never tire of it. One thing I’d never gotten round to doing though was getting up into those hills that tower up above it.

This time, I finally managed it. It was just a shame that in the morning it was really overcast and rainy…

The view from the top of the hill – from a village called La Turbie

Read on: Mercifully the weather soon cleared up…

I once wondered why golf isn’t popular in Russia. Or rugby or cricket, for that matter. Why are these sports – played by millions and watched by billions – hardly noticeable in Russia?

After mulling it over a short while I think I came up with the answer, and it’s simple! Russia’s got winter going on for half the year. It would be daft looking for small white balls in the (white) snow. I remember playing ice hockey when I was young and very often the puck would end up in a snowdrift. We spent more time looking for errant pucks than playing the game. But that’s ice hockey. How can you have ice hockey with no ice/snow? As for other small-ball sports you can generally play in the street of yard – no. They just don’t suit Russia, so they never really took off.

Meanwhile in India!…

Snow to many an Indian is pretty exotic – only seen on the TV in a news report or film. It’s just something that isn’t thought about, like golf in Russia. So snow there doesn’t hinder ball games much, so ball games are mega popular. But you rarely see lads getting together for a kick-about of soccer in India like you do practically the world over. No, instead they all play the exotic (and not only to Russians) game of cricket. Yep, for cricket here is a lot more popular than football! Which has to be a fairly unique state of affairs for any country… So it’s only logical that the very best and most popular (ever!) Indian professional cricket player – Sachin Tendulkar – is referred to as the ‘God of Cricket’ here.

Everywhere the man goes there are cries of “Sachin! Sachin!”, with folks clapping and jumping about and taking as many pics as poss with their gadgets.

I saw the commotion he causes last week in the flesh while in Mumbai. Sachin is a long-time KL friend and partner, and he’s also been our ‘brand ambassador’ in India and nearby countries for several years already.

I was in India for the launch of the new version of KIS 2015, and also of our new education program to protect children from cybercrime in Indian schools. Of course there was much of the usual – presentations, interviews, solo and group photos… only this time things were just a little different due to the larger-than-life presence of the country’s No. 1 megastar showstopper! It was a lot of fun though. Don’t know how he manages it on a daily basis with all that frenzied attention.

Despite working with him for several years already it was the first time I’d met him in person, and the honor and pleasure were all mine. I particularly liked the bit when we kicked back and enjoyed a wonderful meal.

Read on: pix, pix, pix…

We have a tradition at KL where mid-July each year we throw a company birthday bash. Last Friday it was our 17^th, leaving us just one more year before we become fully adult! So a youthful theme was what we were after this year – our final year of innocent adolescence…

…The organization of this year’s festivities however were truly adult in nature. Everything went smoothly and to plan. In fact every year these summer blowouts just get better and better. But I for the life of me can’t imagine how this year’s is going to be improved on. But I say that on every birthday. True to tradition once again the organizers went one better :).

I guess a sweater, jumper or sweatshirt on the singer just wouldn’t have been right :)

Read on: So what stuck in my mind most of all?…

Now, for any Moscow drivers who were held up one recent sunny afternoon by an army of retro-mobiles slowly edging along Leningradsky Shosse and Prospect – SORRY! It was us, KL, putting on some old-school Ritz for our highly valued partners from all over Western Europe.

The smiles are contagious…

‘State Duma’ [Parliament]

Hi folks!

Luckily, I dropped by our CeBIT stand this year in Hannover, where I happened to meet a very important VIP. I guess the pic will do the talking here…

My tie-wearing rule: minister level and up. That’ll be a check, then

Truly an honor, madam chancellor

Cybersecurity + uniformed security

Ah, that was easy. Nothing more I feel I need tell you about this exhibition…

Well… actually, just one thing. I have to admit again that CeBIT continues to become more and more boring. It’s still a huge exhibition and still a must-be-there for all IT companies worth their salt operating in Europe (especially Germany). But, alas, it’s not quite the same in terms of size and energy as it was in the past. Only two companies from the AV industry were there besides KL. Between the years 2000 and 2005 there was always at least a dozen AVers. Sometimes all in our pavilion at once!

That’s all folks! Have a nice day!