Virus Analysts

Eugene Kaspersky
Chief Executive Officer

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 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 4 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 ocurred in 1994, when the virtually unknown AVP won a contest conducted by Hamburg University’s test lab by 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.

Eugene is a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation. In 2010 Eugene received the CEO of the Year award from SC Magazine Europe.

Costin Raiu
Director, Global Research & Analysis Team

Costin joined Kaspersky Lab in 2000 as a leading Antivirus Researcher. Prior to becoming Director of the Global Research & Analysis Team in 2010, Costin was Head of the Romanian R&D group, overseeing research efforts in the EEMEA region. Costin specializes in malicious websites, browser security and exploits, e-banking malware, enterprise-level security and Web 2.0 threats. Costin also has a particular interest in encryption and advanced mathematics. Costin is based in Romania.

Costin has extensive experience in antivirus technologies and security research. He is a member of the Virus Bulletin Technical Advisory Board and a reporter for the Wildlist Organization International. Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, Costin worked for GeCad as one of their Chief Researchers and as a Data Security Expert with the RAV antivirus developers group.

Aleks Gostev
Chief Security Expert, Global Research & Analysis Team

Aleks founded and led the Global Research & Analysis Team from 2008 before moving to his current position as Chief Security Expert with the team in 2010. Aleks analyzes all aspects of information security, with a focus on new threats and 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 for KomiSat and before that as Manager of the ISP department at Komite and as a Systems Administrator for SMZ. In 1996, Aleks founded the Republic of Komi Antivirus Center and in 1998, he acted as Project Coordinator for the Wildlist Russia Project, an initiative which was launched with the aim of collecting and analyzing information about malware outbreaks in the Russian Federation.

Magnus Kalkuhl
Director, Europe, Global Research & Analysis Team

Magnus joined Kaspersky Lab in 2006, working first as a Virus Analyst in the German office before rising to Senior Regional Researcher in 2008. After heading the German research and analysis group for two years, Magnus was appointed as Director of the European Research and Analysis Team in 2010.

Magnus specializes in IT forensics, in-the-cloud security and researching the impact that future threats will have on the digital world. He is also responsible for maintaining close contact with independent testing and research bodies throughout Europe on behalf of the Company.

Prior to joining the Kaspersky Lab, 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 Technical Director for the interactive department of McCann Erickson.

David Emm
Senior Regional Researcher, UK, Global Research & 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.

Marco Preuss
Head, Germany, Global Research & Analysis Team

Marco was appointed to his current position in 2010 and brings more than 11 years of experience in IT and IT-Security to the role. Marco’s responsibilities include monitoring the threat landscape in Central Europe and providing management for the local research team. Marco specializes in web and Apple OS security and social networks.

Marco began his career with Kaspersky Lab back in 2004 as a Technical Consultant, providing expert knowledge on Linux and Unix-based systems. He has also been involved in corporate sales management, before moving on to become the technical contact for the OEM department, supporting customized solutions. Marco has participated in the development of web-based services and systems for the Marketing and Retail Sales departments and has worked extensively with the Company’s product design teams. Marco joined GReAT as a Virus Analyst in 2009.

Christian Funk
Virus Analyst, Central Europe, Global Research & Analysis Team

Christian joined Kaspersky Lab in 2007 and became a Junior Malware Analyst a year later. His specialist field is social networking sites and Internet fraud. Since 2010, Christian has been a Virus Analyst for the Company and has worked extensively with teams across Central Europe.

Christian has a degree in Computer Technologies from the Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences in Germany.

Nicolas Brulez
Senior Malware Researcher, France, Global Research & Analysis Team

Nicolas joined Kaspersky Lab as a senior malware researcher in 2009. His responsibilities include analyzing malware and carrying out security research.

Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, Nicolas worked as a senior virus researcher for Websense Security Labs and Digital River/Silicon Realms. He is also known for his work on the Software Passport/Armadillo protection system. Here, he served as head of software security and was in charge of the anti-reverse engineering techniques used in the system.

Over the last 13 years, Nicolas has authored numerous articles and papers on reverse engineering. He is a regular speaker at computer engineering schools and international security conferences.

David Jacoby
Senior Security Researcher, Nordics, Global Research & Analysis Team

David joined Kaspersky Lab in 2010 as a senior security researcher for the Nordic region. He is also responsible for technical PR activities for the same region, where he acts as a technical spokesperson. He is based in Stockholm, Sweden. David specializes in UNIX, Linux and web security. His research focuses on improving awareness of the threats to which Internet users are exposed.

Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, David worked in vulnerability research and vulnerability management. He held the role of senior security researcher, advisor and consultant at TrueSec AB. Before joining TrueSec AB in 2008, David worked for seven years at Outpost24, starting out as chief hacker and rising to vice president for customer experience by the time he left the company.

Vicente Diaz
Senior Malware Analyst, Spain, Global Research & Analysis Team

Vicente joined Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research & Analysis Team in November 2010. He specializes in research on malware and fraud in the European region, including banking Trojans, social networking threats, cybercriminal ‘partner networks’ and mobile malware, as well as leading technical research projects and providing expert customer support.

Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, Vicente worked as a Software Developer for IT&C and Actaris, after which he took up a research position at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). He then entered the field of IT security, working for a number of leading companies for more than 5 years. Vicente is the author of several software tools and is active on the conference circuit, both as an organizer and speaker. He is a member of the advisory board of Source Conference and a cofounder of Edge –Security, a security group dedicated to research and organizing non-profit events such as FIST conferences.

Vicente holds a degree in Computer Sciences from UPC and has studied internationally. He is currently working towards his Ph.D in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

Roel Schouwenberg
Senior Anti-Virus Researcher, Americas, Global Research & Analysis Team

Roel joined Kaspersky Lab in 2004 as a Senior Technology Consultant for the BNL region. Since 2008, Roel has worked as a Senior Anti-Virus Researcher in North America where he is responsible for monitoring the regional malware situation and for the preliminary analysis of the threat situation. Roel specializes in the classic virus techniques used in today's malware and works on the improvement of proactive detection capabilities. In addition, Roel also conducts research into the vulnerabilities of many different types of file formats.

Roel is a regular presenter at industry conferences. He is also a founder member of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) and currently serves as part of AMTSO’s Board of Directors.

Kurt Baumgartner
Senior Security Researcher, Americas, Global Research and Analysis Team

Kurt joined Kaspersky Lab in 2010 and is responsible for monitoring the malware landscape across the Americas and enhancing Kaspersky Lab technologies and solutions.

Kurt came to the Company from Symantec – PC Tools ThreatFire where he was VP of Behavioral Threat Research. Originally joining ThreatFire as a start-up in 2005 as their sole researcher, he built up and led their research efforts through two successful acquisitions. Prior to Symantec, Kurt was Chief Threat Officer at Novatix and a Threat Analyst at SonicWALL.

Kurt is an active blogger and regularly presents on malware issues at international conferences. He is in demand by many media outlets and is a recognized authority within the wider IT security research community.

Ryan Naraine
Security Evangelist, Americas, Global Research & Analysis Team

Ryan has extensive experience in computer security user education. He specializes in operating system and third-party application vulnerabilities, zero-day attacks, social engineering and social networking threats, and issues related to responsible vulnerability disclosure.

He has monitored security and hacker attack trends for over 10 years, writing for eWEEK magazine and ZDNet‘s Zero Day blog.

Before joining Kaspersky Lab’s research team, Ryan created and edited Threatpost.com, Kaspersky Lab‘s security news service. He is based in the USA.

Dmitry Bestuzhev
Head, Global Research and Analysis Team, Latin America

Dmitry was appointed Head of Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis Team for Latin America in 2010 and oversees the anti-malware development work of the company’s experts in the region.

Dmitry joined Kaspersky Lab in 2007 as a Malware Analyst and was responsible for monitoring the local threat landscape and providing preliminary analyses, before going on to become Senior Regional Researcher for the Latin American region in 2008. In addition to overseeing anti-malware development work, Dmitry’s current role also includes producing reports and forecasts for the region and he is much in demand by the media for comment and interview. Dmitry’s wide field of expertise covers everything from online fraud through to the use of social networking sites by cybercriminals and corporate security. Additionally, Dmitry participates in various educational initiatives throughout Latin America.

Dmitry has over 11-years experience in IT security across a wide variety of roles and is currently based in Ecuador.

Fabio Assolini
Malware Analyst, Brazil

Fabio Assolini joined Kaspersky Lab as a malware analyst in 2009 to focus exclusively on one of the most dynamic and challenging markets in Latin America, Brazil. Fabio’s work entails researching viruses, web attacks, banker Trojans and other malware threats originated in Brazil.

Since 2006, Fabio has been a volunteer member of the Linha Defensiva (Defensive Line) security community, (a non-governmental organization). In addition, Fabio is a member of the Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals (ASAP) and worked as a researcher at CastleCops MIRT (Malware Incident Report and Termination Team). Fabio Assolini has almost half a decade of experience in the virus analysis field.

Sergey Novikov
Head, EEMEA, Global Research & Analysis Team

Sergey was appointed Head of the Global Research & Analysis Group for the EEMEA region in 2010. His responsibilities include monitoring IT security trends in the EEMEA region, organizing international summits for security researchers and cooperating with educational institutions of different level.

Sergey joined Kaspersky Lab in 2002, working in the Customer Service Department before becoming a virus analyst. Prior to his current position he was a project manager in the Research Center since 2007.

Sergey has a degree in Applied Mathematics from the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering and holds a postgraduate degree in IT Security. He’s based in Moscow.

Stefan Tanase
Senior Security Researcher, EEMEA, Global Research & Analysis Team

Stefan joined Kaspersky Lab in 2007 as a regional researcher. 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. Stefan was appointed Senior Security Researcher in 2009.

Stefan is involved in several innovative research projects, ranging from malware databases or honeypots to web crawlers. He is a regular speaker at major international security conferences, such as Virus Bulletin, RSA and AVAR.

Sergey Golovanov
Malware Expert, EEMEA, Global Research and Analysis Team

Sergey started his career at Kaspersky Lab in 2005, joining the company as a Virus Analyst before going on to become Head of the Non-Intel Research Group. He conducts research into data mining and threats that target online games and social networking sites, as well as the technologies and methods used by virus writers and cybercriminal groups. Sergey was appointed Malware Expert for the Russian Research Center in 2009 and is based in Moscow.

Sergey is currently a PhD student and in his spare time, teaches a course on securing computer networks. Prior to joining the Company, he worked at the Moscow Centre for Scientific and Technical Information.

Denis Maslennikov
Senior Malware Analyst, EEMEA, Global Research and Analysis Team

Denis joined Kaspersky Lab at the beginning of 2007. Working initially as a Virus Analyst, he quickly rose to became a Senior Malware Analyst in the Antivirus Lab, and then Head of the Mobile Research Group. Currently, Denis is a Senior Malware Analyst with the company’s Global Research and Analysis Team and is responsible for monitoring the threat landscape, with particular emphasis on mobile malware, attacks on social networking sites, Instant Messenger threats and ICQ spam.

Denis holds a Diploma in Information Security from the Russian State University of Humanities.

Vitaly Kamluk
Chief Malware Expert, Japan, Global Research & Analysis Team

Vitaly joined Kaspersky Lab in 2005 as a Infrastructure Services Developer for antivirus lab. In 2008 he was appointed to the position of Senior Antivirus Expert before becoming Director of the EEMEA Research Center in 2009. Since 2010, Vitaly has been working in Japan as a Chief Malware Expert, leading a group of local researchers. He specializes in threats focusing global network infrastructures, malware reverse engineering and cybercrime investigation.

Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, Vitaly worked as a programmer for an R&D company.

Vitaly is a graduate of the Belarus State University.

Michael Molsner
Regional Researcher, Japan

Andrey Nikishin
Director, Cloud & Content Technologies Research

Andrey has headed the Cloud & Content Technologies Department at Kaspersky Lab since 2010. 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. He has also headed the Software as a Service group, where he oversaw the development of hosted security solutions. Prior to his present role Andrey was Director of the Content Filtering Department for three years.

Andrey came to Kaspersky Lab with 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.

Darya Gudkova
Head of Content Analysis & Research

Darya joined Kaspersky Lab in 2006 as a Spam Analyst, before rising to the position of Head of the Spam Analysts Group. In 2010, Darya became Head of Content Analysis & Research and is responsible for providing information regarding the current spam landscape, as well as future trends in spam and mass mailing techniques. She also writes regular reports on spam evolution.

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

Maria Namestnikova
Senior Spam Analyst, Content Filtering

Maria joined Kaspersky Lab in August 2008 as a junior spam analyst and was appointed a spam analyst in March 2009. Maria‘s main responsibilities include analysis of spam in German, preparation of analytical spam reports, and participation in Kaspersky Lab’s educational initiatives. She was appointed Senior Spam Analyst in 2010.

Before joining the company, Maria worked as a translator for a number of IT companies in Moscow. She holds a degree from Moscow State Pedagogical University in linguistics and teaching English and German as foreign languages.

Vladimir Zapolyansky
Head of Independent Software Vendor Relationships, R&D

Vladimir joined the Company in 2009 and is based in Moscow. He specializes in negotiations with partners and project management teams and is also responsible for communications with third-party software vendors and distributors associated with research and development. In addition, Vladimir acts as Kaspersky Lab’s liaison for the Whitelisting program and is responsible for partner relations within the framework of this program. He also leads the Kaspersky Trusted services initiative.

Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, Vladimir worked as Lead Project Manager at Nokia Siemens Networks in the Consulting and System Integration department, where he was responsible for IT and telecom equipment installation and integration services throughout the Russian Federation. Between 2001 and 2007, Vladimir worked as an Expert and Service Manager before rising to Lead Project Manager and managing the company’s New Generation Network projects in Russia and across the Globe for Siemens Fixed Networks Service Division.

Nikita Shvetsov
Director, Anti-Malware Research Unit

Nikita joined Kaspersky Lab in 2004 as a virus analyst and in 2006 became a senior developer working on emulators for the heuristic engine. He was appointed Director of the Anti-Malware Research Unit in 2009. In his current role he is responsible for running distributed Virus Lab (located in Moscow Russia, Seattle USA and Beijing China), developing new core anti-malware technologies including AV engine, anti-rootkit, proactive and heuristic technologies, as well as for developing Cloud-based technologies for extremely fast detection of new threats.

Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab Nikita worked as a developer for software copy protection at StarForce Technologies.

Nikita has a degree in Computing Science from the Moscow State University of Electronics and Mathematics.

Denis Nazarov
Head of Anti-Malware Research, USA

In 2010, Denis was named Head of Anti-Malware Research, USA, and is currently based in the United States. Denis specializes in detection techniques, particularly for polymorphic viruses, detection tests, and proactive technologies.

He joined Kaspersky Lab in 2003 as a virus analyst, becoming a senior virus analyst two years later. He was made head of the Heuristic Detection Group in 2007, and then head of the Anti-Malware Team in 2009.

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

Mikhail Pavlyushchik
Security Expert, Anti-Malware Research, USA

Mikhail rejoined Kaspersky Lab in 2010 as a Security Expert, with a place on the Company’s Scientific Board. It is his second stint at the Company, which he initially joined in 1999 as a virus analyst before rising to the position of senior antivirus research engineer.

Mikhail left the Company in 2008 to take up the position of Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft where he was responsible for developing a search index platform for use online and by multimedia.

Mikhail has nearly two decades of experience in IT security. His expertise includes system programming, real-time data processing, multithreaded programming, synchronization, interprocess communication, secure programming techniques, and TCP/IP environments with a focus on computer security. Mikhail has invented several key antivirus technologies which are currently used in Kaspersky Lab’s products. Mikhail is based in Vancouver, Canada.

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.

Alexey Malanov
Head of Malware Stream Control

Alexey joined Kaspersky Lab in 2004 as a virus analyst. In 2008, he was appointed Head of Malware Stream Control. His responsibilities include overseeing the procedure for processing the flow of incoming malware and organizing the virus analysts’ work into round-the-clock shifts.

Alexey holds a degree in Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics from the Moscow State University.

Maksym Schipka
Director, Hosted & Streaming Technology Research

Maksym was appointed Kaspersky Lab’s Director of Hosted & Streaming Technology Research in 2010. Maksym is responsible for running the Hosted & Streaming Technology Department, where the first and the final frontier for stopping Zero-Day corporate threats through reliable managed services and the processing of raw ‘on-the-wire’ data streams is established and expanded. Between 2009 and taking up his present position, Maksym was Director of the European Research Centre for Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research & Analysis Team. Maksym is based in the UK.

Maksym started his career as a Virus Analyst for McAfee in 1997, before joining Kaspersky Lab in 1999 as a Senior Developer and later moving to a similar position at Invisimail. From 2003 to 2009, Maksym was a Senior Architect at MessageLabs.

Maksym has a degree in Applied Physics and Mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.