Virus Analysts

Eugene Kaspersky
CEO, Co-Founder of Kaspersky Lab

Eugene Kaspersky’s love for mathematics determined his “technical” future. One of his hobbies during high school was to solve problems published in mathematical journals. During his last few years in high school, he attended extracurricular classes in physics and mathematics at a dedicated program organized by the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Eugene spent his last two years of high school taking physics and mathematics courses in a specialized program for gifted students organized by and affiliated with Moscow State University.

In 1987, Eugene graduated from the Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications and Computer Science, where he studied mathematics, cryptography and computer technology, majoring in mathematical engineering.

After graduating, Eugene worked at a multi-disciplinary research institute. It was there that Eugene first began studying computer viruses after detecting the Cascade virus on his computer in October 1989. Eugene analyzed the virus and developed a disinfection utility for it – the first such utility he developed. He started collecting malicious programs and disinfection modules for them. This exotic collection later formed the foundation of the famous antivirus database in Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Today, this database includes more than 1.3 million records and is one of the most complete antivirus databases in the world.

In 1991, Eugene joined the KAMI Information Technologies Center, where he and a group of colleagues developed the AVP antivirus project, which became the prototype for Kaspersky Anti-Virus. International recognition of the project arrived in 1994, when the virtually unknown AVP won a contest conducted by Hamburg University’s test lab, demonstrating a higher virus detection rate than the most popular antivirus programs at the time.

In 1997, Eugene and his colleagues decided to establish an independent company, becoming the founders of Kaspersky Lab.

From that moment, he has headed the company’s antivirus research.

In 2007, Eugene was named CEO of Kaspersky Lab.

Aleks Gostev
Head of Global Research and Analysis Team,
Mobile Malware Research Group Manager

Aleks has headed the Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky Lab since 2008, and specializes in all aspects of information security, including mobile malware. His responsibilities include detecting and analyzing new malware. His research and analytical articles are published both on dedicated IT sites and in the mass media. He has been with the company since 2002, and is based in Moscow.

Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, Aleks worked as CTO at KomiSat, as Manager of the ISP department at Komite, and as System Administrator at SMZ. In 1996, he founded the Republic of Komi Antivirus Center, and in 1998, he acted as project coordinator of the Wildlist Russia Project, an initiative which was launched with the aim of collecting and analyzing information about malware outbreaks in the Russian Federation.

David Emm
Senior Regional Researcher, UK, Global Research and Analysis Team

David has been with Kaspersky Lab since 2004. His role as Senior Technology Consultant included presenting information on malware and other IT threats at exhibitions and events, and providing comment to both broadcast and print media. He also provides information on Kaspersky Lab products and technologies. He was promoted to his current position in 2008. David has a particular interest in the malware ecosystem, ID theft, and Kaspersky Lab technologies, and conceived and developed the company’s Malware Defence Workshop.

David has worked in the antivirus industry since 1990 in a variety of roles, including that of Senior Technology Consultant with Dr. Solomon’s and Systems Engineer and Product Manager at Network Associates.

Costin Raiu
Chief Security Expert, EEMEA, Global Research and Analysis Team

Costin has worked at Kaspersky Lab since 2000, when he joined the company as a leading antivirus researcher. He also headed the Romanian R&D team, and has been overseeing research efforts in the EEMEA region since 2008. He specializes in Internet browser security, threats, attacks and vulnerabilities targeting banks, and threats to corporate security. He also has a particular interest in encryption, and is based in Romania.

Costin has extensive experience in antivirus technologies and security research, is a member of the Virus Bulletin committee and a reporter for Wildlist Organization International. Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, he worked for GeCad as one of their chief researchers, and as a data security expert with the RAV antivirus developers group.

Magnus Kalkuhl
Senior Regional Researcher, Germany, Global Research and Analysis Team

Magnus has worked for Kaspersky Lab since 2006, when he joined the German office as a virus analyst. He specializes in IT forensics, supporting companies both in limiting damage caused by attacks and by implementing preventive measures to prevent future attacks. He is also responsible for maintaining close contact with independent testing and research bodies. He became a senior regional researcher in 2008.

Prior to joining the company, Magnus spent several years as a freelance IT consultant and technical project manager for companies such as Daimler Chrysler and Volkswagen. He also worked as a developer and then the Technical Director in the interactive department of McCann Erickson.

Roel Schouwenberg
Senior Antivirus Researcher, Americas, Global Research and Analysis Team

Roel first worked for Kaspersky Lab in 2004, when he joined the company as a Senior Technology Consultant in the BNL region. He has worked as a Senior Antivirus Researcher in North America since 2008, where he is responsible for monitoring the regional malware situation and conducting preliminary analysis of threats. He also participates in developing proactive detection of new threats. His research focuses on online banking and targeted attacks.

Roel is a regular presenter at industry conferences, and a founding member of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization. He also co-presents a weekly podcast, The Ryan and Roel Show, which addresses the latest developments in the IT security world.

Eddy Willems
Security Evangelist, Kaspersky Lab Benelux

Eddy joined Kaspersky Lab in 2007, and is currently based in the Benelux region. He is involved in anti-malware and security research, and regularly speaks to the media, distributors, resellers and end users. He also acts as a contact for local law enforcement agencies. Eddy has a particular interest in educational projects designed to increase the security awareness of young users.

Before joining the company, Eddy worked as Anti-Malware Technology Expert for NOXS, a Westcon Group Company. Throughout his career he has been actively involved with security industry bodies, acting as a founder member and Director of Press and Information of EICAR and as a Wildlist reporter.

Ryan Naraine
Security Evangelist, Americas

Ryan joined Kaspersky Lab in 2008, has extensive experience in IT security and the media. He has monitored security and hacker attack trends for over 10 years. Together with Roel Schouwenberg, he presents “The Ryan and Roel Show” weekly podcast, which discusses the latest happenings in the antivirus industry. He is based in North America.

Ryan is one of ZdNet’s leading Zero Day bloggers, is widely published, and has extensive experience of the IT media, having worked as editor for eWeek and Internetnews.com.

Dmitry Bestuzhev
Senior Regional Researcher, Latin America, Global Research and Analysis Team

Dmitry joined Kaspersky Lab in 2007 and has been a Senior Regional Researcher for the Latin America region since 2008. Dmitry was initially hired as a technical consultant, and has also worked as a virus analyst, monitoring the local threat landscape and conducting preliminary analysis. While continuing to do this, he also produces statistics and forecasts for the region and provides the media with interviews and comment. Dmitry also participates in educational initiatives and in 2008 taught a malware analysis course at the Universidad Central of Chile.

He has worked in IT security for more than 8 years in a variety of roles, including those of network administrator, IT security officer, IT security consultant and senior IT security engineer. He is currently based in Ecuador.

Andrey Nikishin
Director of Content Filtering, Research & Development

Andrey has headed the Content Filtering Research and Development Department at Kaspersky Lab since 2007. In a career that stretches back to the early days of the company, Andrey worked as a senior software engineer and architect before moving to the strategic marketing department as a product strategy manager. Prior to his present role, Andrey headed the software as a service group, where he oversaw the development of hosted security solutions.

Before he joined Kaspersky Lab, Andrey already had several years of experience developing his own antivirus programs – the Nicks Speed Checker and the Nicks Ghost Buster – for Windows operating systems.

Andrey has a degree from the Baltic State Technical University in St. Petersburg and received his MBA from the Institute of Business Studies in Moscow in 2003.

Denis Maslennikov
Senior Malware Analyst

Denis has been with Kaspersky Lab since the beginning of 2007. Working initially as a virus analyst, he is responsible for monitoring the threat landscape, with a specific interest in mobile malware, attacks on social networking sites, Instant Messenger threats and ICQ spam. He became a senior malware analyst in 2008.

In addition to his work at Kaspersky Lab, Denis studies information security at the Russian State University of the Humanities.

Sergey Golovanov
Senior Malware Analyst

Sergey started his career at Kaspersky Lab in 2005, when he joined the company as a virus analyst. He currently specializes in threats which target online games and social networking sites and data mining. He also conducts research into the technologies and methods used by virus writers and cybercriminal groups. Sergey is based in Moscow.

He is currently a PhD student, and teaches a course on securing computer networks. Prior to joining the company, he worked at the Moscow Centre for Scientific and Technical Information.

Vitaly Kamluk
Senior Security Researcher

Vitaly joined Kaspersky Lab in 2005, and specializes in research focusing on corporate network protection, malware behaviour, and developing protection methods and tools. He has acted as an expert witness in IT forensic cases, and is based in Moscow. He has been in his current position since June 2008.

Vitaly has also worked as a virus analyst and developer, and participated in developing systems and components for internal use in the company’s Virus Lab. Before he joined Kaspersky Lab, he studied at Belarus State University, and worked as a programmer at an R&D company.

Darya Gudkova
Head of Spam Analyst Group

Darya is a graduate of Moscow State Linguistic University where she specialized in theoretical and applied linguistics.

Oleg Zaitsev
Lead Technical Specialist, Complex Threat Analysis Group

Oleg has been working for Kaspersky Lab since 2007, when he joined the company as a developer in the Complex Threat Analysis Group. He was promoted to Lead Technical Specialist in November 2008, and is responsible for research into new detection and disinfection technologies, investigating and disinfecting remote systems, and analyzing malicious program behaviour.

Oleg graduated from Moscow Energy Institute and combines his work with Kaspersky Lab with work at Smolenskenergo, a major Russian energy company.

Yury Mashevsky
Head of Analysis and Statistics Group, R&D

Yury joined Kaspersky Lab in 2003 as a virus analyst. In 2007, he was appointed head of the Analysis and Statistics Group, and specializes in providing statistical data which illustrate the evolution of malicious programs.

Prior to joining the company he worked as a system programmer and was responsible for developing copy protection systems. He graduated from Moscow Energy Institute and also has a PhD.

Denis Nazarov
Head of Department of Anti-Virus Research, (Аnti)Virus Laboratory

Denis started working at Kaspersky Lab in 2003 as a virus analyst, and became a senior virus analyst in 2005. He was made head of the Heuristic Detection Group in 2007, and specializes in detection techniques, particularly for polymorphic viruses, detection tests, and proactive technologies.

After graduating from Moscow State University, Dennis worked as a system programmer for major Russian companies.

Stefan Tanase
Regional Researcher, Global Research and Analysis Team

Stefan joined Kaspersky Lab in 2007. He is based in Romania and is responsible for monitoring the local threat landscape. He specializes in web security, malware 2.0, and threats which target Internet banking systems, including phishing.

Before he joined Kaspersky Lab, Stefan worked as a web developer at MediaPro Interactiv.