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                Kaspersky Plans Increased Sales to US Government

   by Reuters

   Kaspersky Lab, the Russian anti-virus software maker, plans to open an
   office in the Washington area to spearhead sales to the U.S.
   government, a bid to offset slowing demand for its programs for
   consumers.
   Kaspersky makes one of the top-selling anti-virus programs in the
   United States, where it has gained market share in recent years against
   products from Symantec Corp, Intel Corp's McAfee and Trend Micro Inc.
   Yet the Moscow-headquartered company has struggled to make inroads with
   the U.S. government, one of the world's largest buyers of technology
   products. Security experts say that the U.S. government typically
   avoids Russian products out of concern they could have hidden functions
   that might allow Moscow to penetrate U.S. networks.
   Eugene Kaspersky, the company's co-founder and chief executive officer,
   told the Reuters Cybersecurity Summit that his programs have no such
   hidden functions. But he said he will build products aimed at the U.S.
   market in the United States, to assuage any concerns.
   "American companies are 100 percent trusted, so we have to prove we are
   200 percent trusted,'' Kaspersky said. "We have to be more American
   than Americans.''
   Kaspersky said he will hire U.S. citizens to work in the new office and
   write, test and compile computer programs. The company already has a
   regional headquarters in Woburn, Massachusetts, and an anti-virus lab
   in Seattle, but does not produce software in the United States.
   The new U.S. team will work on an operating system for computers that
   control electric generators, water systems, factories and other
   industrial facilities.

   Kaspersky said the company is almost ready to test an early version in
   Russia. He said he hopes the industrial control software will one day
   account for about a third of its sales.
   As global sales of personal computers decline, Kaspersky Lab wants to
   diversify its portfolio away from PC anti-virus software. Last year
   global PC sales posted their biggest decline in more than two decades,
   hurt by a shift to tablets and smartphones.
   Kaspersky said falling consumer sales in 2012 crimped overall revenue
   growth but did not elaborate. The company still has positive revenue
   growth when sales to businesses are included "but it's a little bit
   close to flat,'' he said.
   Revenue grew 14 percent in 2011 to $612 million.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/kaspersky-plans-increased-sales-to-us-government/1661786.html