Surviving the Storm: Kaspersky’s Battle to Stay Afloat in the U.S. Amidst National Security Concerns

A massive rainstorm caused unprecedented flooding in desert Dubai on April 16. Among the hundreds of people from all over the world trying to land in the city was Eugene Kaspersky (1965, Novorossiysk), founder and CEO of the cybersecurity company Kaspersky. His flight from Moscow was not without incident: “There was turbulence the entire time and I had to land in Abu Dhabi.” After waiting a couple of hours on the plane, he was able to leave the airport and get a car to take him to Dubai.

The Russian cybersecurity expert compares the storms in Dubai with the challenges his company faces in the United States. In recent years, Kaspersky has come under scrutiny due to allegations about its relationship with the Russian government. In fact, in 2017, the United States vetoed the use of software from Kaspersky to government agencies for fear of Russian espionage. Now it is preparing to go further and issue an order that would prevent American companies and citizens from using its software due to national security concerns, according to CNN.

Kasperky believes that companies need to adapt to new realities like storms do. He says: “That is why we continue working.” The CEO boasts that his company has technologies “that recognize malware better than others: we do it in real-time and send what we capture on the Internet to