From today, malicious and suspicious files shared by users of Kaspersky Lab products in Europe will start to be processed in data centers in Zurich, initiating the first part of a relocation commitment made by the company in late 2017 under its Global Transparency Initiative. The move reflects Kaspersky Lab’s determination to assure the integrity and trustworthiness of its products and is accompanied by the opening of the company’s first Transparency Center, also in Zurich.
The relocation of data processing is part of a major infrastructure move designed to increase the resilience of the company’s IT infrastructure to risks of data breaches and supply-chain attacks, and to further prove the trustworthiness of its products, services and internal processes.
From November 13, threat-related data coming from European users will start to be processed in two datacenters. These provide world-class facilities in compliance with industry standards to ensure the highest levels of security.
The data, which users have actively chosen to share with Kaspersky Lab, includes suspicious or previously unknown malicious files and corresponding meta-data that the company’s products send to Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) for automated malware analysis.
Files comprise only part of the data processed by Kaspersky Lab technologies, yet the most important one. Protection of customers’ data, together with the safety and integrity of infrastructure is a top priority for Kaspersky Lab, and that is why the file processing relocation comes first and is expected to be fully accomplished by the end of 2019. The relocation of other types of data processed by Kaspersky Lab products, consisting of several kinds of anonymized threat and usage statistics, is planned to be conducted during later phases of the Global Transparency Initiative.
The Transparency Center will also enable Kaspersky’s authorized partners to access reviews of the company’s code, software updates and threat detection rules, along with other activities. Through the Transparency Center, the company will provide governments and partners with information on its products and their security, including essential and important technical documentation, for external evaluation in a secure environment.
Commenting on the start of data processing in Europe and the opening of the first Transparency Center, Eugene Kaspersky, CEO at Kaspersky Lab said “Transparency is becoming the new normal for the IT industry– and for the cybersecurity industry in particular. We are proud to be on the front line of this process. As a technological company, we are focused on ensuring the best IT infrastructure for the security of our products and data, and the relocation of key parts of our infrastructure to Switzerland places them in one of the most secure locations in the world.”
‘We believe that steps such as these are just the beginning – for the company and for the security industry as a whole. The need to prove trustworthiness will soon become an industry standard.” Kaspersky added.