Kaspersky launches Anti-Malware Protection System

Kevin Krempulec

Kaspersky Canada GM Kevin Krempulec

Kaspersky Lab has banded together eight new and refreshed products into a combination the company is calling its Anti-Malware Protection System.

By combining the products under a common umbrella and unifying them under a common management interface, the company is bidding to create a single protection system for its customers, said Kevin Krempulec, general manager of Kaspersky Canada.

“The IT environment has changed dramatically – it used to be dominated by gateways and firewalls and was mostly a Windows environment, but today, the reality is that mobility has been widely adopted and the operating environment has changed a lot,” Krempulec said.

By going with an all-inclusive message and a common management structure, Krempulec said Kaspersky and its partners are sending a message to customers that they have everything from various endpoints to the file servers and Exchange servers protected.

“It’s saying we’ve got you covered across the disparate IT environment,” Krempulec said. “We can help [solution providers] go into SMB customers who are highly frustrated in trying to figure out security, and give them a complete anti-malware strategy.”

The company has changed its messaging from an anti-virus vendor to the broader anti-malware approach as a result of the prominence of other types of attacks, including hackers, Trojan horses, scripts and other targeted attacks.

Members of the new family include:

  • Kaspersky Anti-Virus 8.0 for Windows Servers Enterprise Edition
  • Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Linux File Server 8.0
  • Kaspersky Security 8.0 for Microsoft Exchange Servers 2007/2010
  • Kaspersky Anti-Virus 8.0 for Lotus Domino
  • Kaspersky Anti-Virus 8.0 for Microsoft ISA Server and Forefront TMG Standard Edition
  • Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Linux
  • Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Mac
  • Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Smartphone

All are tied together with a common management console, allowing the management of disparate device sand services over a network through a common interface.

Mobility is increasingly becoming a key driver for security vendors, and Kaspersky is no exception. The company currently supports Windows Mobile and Symbian in its Smartphone offering, and has announced upcoming support for BlackBerry devices.

“There haven’t been a lot of threats against mobile devices, but as they become more prevalent, we see it as the next wave of protection,” Krempulec said. “The more these devices can do, the more they’ll be targeted and the more they’ll need protection.”

Similarly, there haven’t been a great number of attacks on Mac OS X-based computers, but security vendors are rapidly adding support for the platform to their mix. Again, Kaspersky is no exception. The key value here, Krempulec suggested, is the ability to manage Macs alongside their PC counterparts and the rest of the network.

Kaspersky is also jumping into the cloud arena. Krempulec said he’s “seeing a lot of interest and discussion around the cloud,” and offers hosted e-mail protection (including partner-hosted) in more of a managed services model. “We’re doing a lot to keep up with the cloud conversation, whether [customers] want to be on-premise or off-site,” he said. “Partners need to be able to offer different alternatives for them.”

The anti-malware opened up shop in Canada at the beginning of 2009, and since then has worked to build a channel base in the country. Krempulec’s pitch to partners is simple: Solid margins, and a trusted product. “Partners like to work with a company with strong products in security because it’s their reputation on the line with their customers,” he said.

Kaspersky’s heritage is in the small-business space, but with the creation of the Anti-Malware Protection System, and particularly the inclusion of protection for the gateway, for Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino, the company is starting to realize its long-stated goal of getting into the enterprise space.

“We’re known for SMB, but this will help to position us into large accounts as well,” Krempulec said.