Bridging the Enterprise Divide: Kaspersky

Kaspersky are one of the best-known cybersecurity providers in the world and are an industry leader in their field. Being able to innovate and implement new solutions in the cybersecurity industry is set to continue long into the future for Kaspersky, who recently discussed this further with TechRound’s Editor.

By Christopher Hurst, General Manager of Kaspersky UK and Ireland

Why is it more important than ever today, to ensure companies and employees have sufficient antivirus protection?

As we enter the new digital age, thrust upon us by the pandemic, and as work locations become more dispersed, it is important to make sure that companies and employees keep their data safe. With employees working from home, with routers that have an unchanged password since installation (and a less secure network in general), adversaries have upped their game and are thriving in this time of crisis.

In recent times, why has the gap between large companies, business leaders and consumers widened?

IT and OT environments have become more complex over time and the number of vendors supplying solutions in this space has significantly grown. If you combine these two factors, the situation becomes very complex, where knowledge and a specific skill set is needed to make the right decisions. For business leaders it’s difficult to keep up with the pace of development, and this is even more the case with consumers.

Are vendors and larger companies addressing the problem of this enterprise disconnect?

Vendors are developing their products at a rapid pace, and of course a lot of this development goes into their enterprise ready products. This does not mean that consumers won’t benefit from these fast paced developments. Knowledge vendors acquire from their enterprise product development is also used (when possible) in products specifically aimed at consumers.

What more can be done about this problem?

To achieve optimal cybersecurity, businesses must ensure that they adopt the right culture and attitude towards it. This change must be driven from the top, with company leaders embedding a culture of cyber-awareness across an entire organisation, and ensuring staff are trained and educated in defending against cyberthreats.

What are the potential ramifications if it isn’t addressed and is left to continue?

Besides the obvious costs of a breach, reputational damage could be even worse.

What are the biggest threats out there for businesses ignoring this problem?

Ultimately, reputational damage could cause business to bankrupt or lose a big chunk of their customers. When handling data, trust and security means everything.

What are Kaspersky doing about the enterprise disconnect?

Besides working with our customers and prospects on their security roadmap, we offer a full range of security awareness products to help drive change of behaviour and implement a culture of cyber-awareness.

What do business leaders need to do to play their part in addressing this disconnect?

Make sure they have enough security talent within their company that can provide them with the right advice towards developing their security stack and roadmap towards the future. As talent is scarce in the market, there are a lot of channel partners ready to help them out with knowledge, products and services.

With the impact of covid-19 not yet totally clear, what will Kaspersky be doing for the future to ensure business leaders and well informed and protected?

We will continue to deliver word class solutions to the market, and our team is always ready and available to spar with anyone that’s interested to discuss the possible benefits to their business. Besides this, we have had and will continue to help with special promotions. During the first COVID-19 wave we have offered our software for free to healthcare, and have offered our existing customers additional free software for their workers that all of a sudden needed to start working from home.

What needs to change in the relationship between larger companies and vendors to address the enterprise disconnect in the future?

A more open dialogue needs to be set up, the mission of Kaspersky for example is to make the world a safer place. We act from the core of this message, and are not selling products, just to be able to sell. But want to work with our customers and prospects to help them overcome their challenges and help keep them and their data safe. Instead of the traditional vendor – customer relationship, it should be more about being business partners.