It also revolutionizes government-to-government and global diplomatic relations to become more transparent and accessible to people and to “enemies” alike.

The massive WikiLeaks’s secret document cases and their impacts on the world’s geopolitical, security and information landscapes, and the recent Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iranian nuclear programs are among the obvious examples of the beginning of fierce global cyber wars.

Eugene Kaspersky, chief executive officer (CEO) of Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab answered questions on the newest  trends in the cyber world on the sidelines of a recent international meeting on information technology security in Nusa Dua.

“We are now entering cyber-warfare and cyber-terrorism, the fourth stage of malware evolution, which we already predicted many years ago and kept warning world governments and authorities since seven years ago,” he said. “Unfortunately, we were right in our predictions and warnings and now we see it happening.

“And this year we have seen another major shift in the history of cyber threats. We can call it the dawn of the era of cyber-warfare,” he added.

He also said that the world is expecting growth of mobile phone threats as smart phones are increasing their market shares. “The more popular a platform is and the more money there is to steal from users, the more attention cyber criminals will pay to it.”

Kaspersky went on that every year malware follows two main trends — increasing numbers (we receive and process over 30,000 new unique malware every day in his virus labs, and growing, he said) and increasing complexity. Stuxnet is also a perfect example of this trend. Kaspersky’s estimates its development cost millions of dollars and required top-class software engineers.

Stuxnet used four previously unknown Windows vulnerabilities (an unprecedented number) and two legal VeriSign certificates, which made Stuxnet extremely hard to detect and allowed it to stay under the radar for months, he said. “I believe that malware complexity will continue to increase in the near future, and the competition between the threats and protection will go on.”

Previously, the world only just saw three important stages of evolution of malware — computer viruses, worms and Trojan, Karspersky said.

The first stage emerged as an experimental phase in which malware was written by computer scientists.

Secondly, the evolution appeared as cyber-vandalism when Malaria was written by hooligans and teenagers. The third stage was called cyber-criminal, which  includes bank fraud, where malware is written for illegal profit.

“This year we have seen another major shift in the history of cyber threats. We can call it the dawn of the era of cyber-warfare,” he said.

Born in Moscow in l965, young Kaspersky’s talent for mathematics was obvious. His mother recognized her son’s love for the subject at a very young age.

“I had dreams when I was kid. But at that time there were no computers, so these dreams were IT  free,” he said.

Kaspersky’s love for mathematics determined his future as one of the world’s experts on IT security systems.

One of his hobbies during high school was solving problems published in advanced mathematics journals. During his last years in high school he attended extracurricular classes in physics and mathematics at a program organized by the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

He spent his last two years of high school taking physics and mathematics courses in a specialized program for gifted students organized by Moscow State University.

Kaspersky graduated in 1987 from the Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications and Computer Science, where he studied cryptography and computer technology while majoring in mathematical engineering. After graduating he worked at a multi-disciplinary research institute. It was there that he first began studying computer viruses after detecting the Cascade virus on his computer in October 1989.

So how did Kaspersky’s talent as a mathematician lead to him founding an incredibly successful information security company?

“If you’re a mathematician you can easily be a computer engineer,” he said. “But if you’re computer engineer, you’ll never be a mathematician. I did it the right way around. It was very good training for my brain.”

“The more popular a platform is and the more money there is to steal from users, the more attention cyber criminals will pay to it.”

Kaspersky analyzed the virus and developed a disinfection utility for it — the first such utility he developed. He started collecting malicious programs and disinfection modules for them.

This exotic collection later formed the foundation of the famous database in Kaspersky Anti-Virus.

Today this database includes more than four million records and is one of the most complete antivirus databases in the world.

Kaspersky and his colleagues decided to establish an independent company in 1997, becoming the founders of Kaspersky Lab. He was named CEO of Kaspersky Lab in 2007.

“At that time we were a small team of engineers. We were ambitious, of course, but not too much. Our success is the result of very hard work for almost 20 years.”

The IT security industry emerged as the answer to a growing number of cyber threats and attacks.

“Say the pharmaceutical industry exists as a response to illnesses. If everyone was healthy, there would be no need for medicines. This is the same with the IT security industry,” he said.

A recipient of  many achievement awards, such as the Russian Fede-ration State Prize, and a member of the Russian Federation Civic Chamber, Kaspersky said his company’s primary goal is to protect their clients and customers — companies, governments and home users.

“We also cooperate with international law enforcement organizations, helping them to investigate various cyber attacks and sharing our expertise with them. Many developing countries are still not equipped with sophisticated IT security systems,” he said.

Kaspersky said countries that are developing as quickly as Indonesia have a unique chance to set a firm foundation for their national IT security by introducing effective security regulations and guidelines on the national level for developing cyber-crime response forces and investing in national IT security systems. Another key factor is security education, both for young IT specialists and end users.

“Our company has been helping universities around the world establish IT security classes and seminars for several years. We hope these students will become IT security experts in the future, helping to protect their nations against cyber threats.”

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