Kaspersky has been a dominant player in the cybersecurity space, empowering its customers with cutting-edge solutions and building immense trust among consumers. Through a robust network of channel partners, Kaspersky has cemented its position in the Indian market. In an exclusive interview, Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal, spoke with Purshottam Bhatia, Head of Consumer Sales, South Asia, Kaspersky. The discussion delved into Kaspersky's strategic positioning, innovative approaches, and future plans in the consumer cybersecurity segment. This insightful conversation sheds light on how Kaspersky continues to lead and innovate, ensuring the safety and security of its users.
Rajeev: What current trends do you see in the consumer cybersecurity market? How is Kaspersky adapting to these trends?
Purshottam: In the current consumer cybersecurity market, threats to mobile and IoT devices are on the rise. With work from home becoming the norm since the pandemic, personal devices used for work and leisure are increasingly vulnerable. Without comprehensive cybersecurity solutions, users are exposed to attacks. IoT devices, including smartwatches, home appliances, and voice assistants, expand the cyber-attack surface. These devices often lack robust security features due to limited processing power, making them easier targets for malicious actors.
The rise of cloud services for personal and remote work use also presents significant security risks. Misconfigured cloud settings can lead to data breaches, unauthorized access, and account hijacking. Additionally, social engineering attacks like phishing have become more sophisticated with the use of AI.
Kaspersky is addressing these trends by enhancing mobile security features, investing in AI and machine learning for better threat detection, and educating consumers on cybersecurity best practices through awareness campaigns and training programs.
Rajeev: How does Kaspersky maintain and build consumer trust in its brand amidst the competitive cybersecurity landscape?
Purshottam: Building and maintaining consumer trust is paramount for Kaspersky. We achieve this by consistently delivering reliable and effective security solutions, ensuring transparency in our operations, and adhering to the highest standards of data protection and privacy. Cybersecurity is a very dynamic industry, and our technologies undergo comprehensive audits and are certified in accordance with the most respected global standards to ensure robust security for our users. Our Global Transparency Initiative and the establishment of Transparency Centers worldwide demonstrate our commitment to openness and accountability. Furthermore, we prioritize customer feedback and continuously improve our products based on their needs and experiences.
As an organization, we constantly challenge ourselves to develop smart solutions that pre-empt a threat rather than just secure a technology set up or system. We regularly assess our technologiesโ efficiency in measurable independent tests to control its quality against modern threats.
Rajeev: With the increasing use of mobile devices, how is Kaspersky addressing mobile security threats? What solutions are you offering to protect consumers' mobile devices?
Purshottam: Kaspersky addresses mobile security threats with comprehensive solutions to protect against malware, phishing, and malicious apps. In 2023, mobile device attacks surged by over 50%, with adware being the most prevalent threat. Malicious applications, often disguised as fake investment apps, infiltrated Google Play, using social engineering tactics to extract personal data. We recommend robust mobile security solutions to safeguard devices. Kaspersky Mobile Security and Kaspersky Internet Security for Android and iOS offer real-time protection, anti-theft capabilities, privacy protection, and tools for secure banking and identity protection. Parental control features help safeguard children's online activities.
Our flexible consumer subscription plans allow users to choose from basic mobile device security to high-level app security. Kaspersky mobile security plans ensure users have full control over their data and comprehensive protection. We continuously develop and improve our mobile apps for iOS and Android, incorporating features like anti-phishing, VPN, anti-spyware, online privacy, identity protection, and antivirus. Our protection quality is validated by independent testing organizations like AV-Comparatives, which recognized our consumer product line as Product of the Year in 2023. Kaspersky remains committed to enhancing mobile security features and educating consumers on best practices through awareness campaigns and training programs.
Rajeev: In an era where data privacy is a major concern, how does Kaspersky ensure the privacy and security of consumer data?
Purshottam: Data privacy is a core focus for Kaspersky. Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence data showed that about 10,000,000 personal and corporate devices globally were compromised with data-stealing malware in 2023, amounting to a 643 percent increase over the past three years. Cybercriminals steal an average of 50.9 login credentials per infected device. Threat actors either utilize these credentials for their own malicious purposes, including perpetrating cyberattacks, or sell or distribute them freely on dark web forums and shadow Telegram channels.
We ensure the privacy and security of consumer data through robust encryption methods, stringent access controls, and regular security audits. Our products are designed with privacy in mind, offering features that protect personal information from unauthorized access. Additionally, our Global Transparency Initiative reinforces our dedication to data security by allowing independent reviews of our source code and practices.
Rajeev: What measures is Kaspersky taking to improve customer support and overall user experience for your consumer products?
Purshottam: We have enhanced our support channels to provide timely and effective assistance to our customers, including 24/7 support through various platforms. Our user-friendly interfaces and intuitive product designs ensure that consumers can easily navigate and utilize our solutions. We also regularly update our products based on user feedback to enhance functionality and address emerging cybersecurity challenges.
Rajeev: How has been your performance in the South Asia region so far? How do you see the contribution of the India business in this?
Purshottam: Our performance in the South Asia region has been robust, with significant growth in both the consumer and enterprise segments. India, in particular, has been a key contributor to our success in this region. It is one of our priority markets in the region, and the cybersecurity ecosystem is maturing significantly. This is driven by the increased number of threats attacks that individuals, leading organisations and even government agencies in the country have faced over the last one year. In first quarter of 2024 itself, over 20% of web users have faced major web threats, according to our KSN report.
So, in India we are seeing increased adoption of cybersecurity tools and solutions. This has led us to strengthen our presence in the country through strategic channel partnerships and major marketing campaigns for consumers.
We recently announced our partnership with the cricket team Mumbai Indians, to promote our consumer security solutions. Through this campaign we offered our consumers attractive discounts and promotions on our home user products and solutions.
In 2024, for the enterprise segment, our focus are two major solutions - Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Portal and Kaspersky Industrial Cyber Security (KICS). This is in line with Kaspersky EDR solutions like Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response to detect complex threats, investigate incidents, and effectively remediate problems. Through these we hope to enable consumers and organisations to adopt more evolved and preventive cybersecurity measures. This will take forward our vision of delivering cyber immunity to people and organisations instead of just cybersecurity in this country.
Rajeev: Can you please brief about your existing channel model in India? What are your specific channel plans for consumer business growth?
Purshottam: Our channel model in India is built on a strong network of partners, including distributors, resellers, and retail outlets, who play a crucial role in extending our reach and providing localized support to consumers. We are committed to expanding our channel network by onboarding new partners and enhancing collaboration with existing ones.
We tailor our partnership plans to meet every partnerโs specific business needs and offer collaborative and rewarding business opportunities.
We have also updated the Kaspersky United partner program with e new approach. The program is now divided into four business model-focused streams: Sell, Deploy, Manage, and Build. Each of the streams focuses on a specific type of business partner. We have set up single sign-on Kaspersky Order Management portal to enable our partners to order and manage their customer subscriptions. The tools in the portal help our partners increase revenue by recommending upgrades, analyze license usage and find new upsell opportunities.
For our B2C segment, we offer a subscription-based model with flexible billing options for our loyal partners. We provide valuable incentives every quarter that focus on our new product portfolio based on demand and supply fulfilment principles. We've collaborated with over 5000 + resellers and retailers nationwide to ensure our customers receive the best solutions.
Our specific plans for consumer business growth include targeted marketing campaigns, training programs for partners, and the introduction of new products tailored to the needs of Indian consumers. By leveraging our channel partners' expertise and market presence, we aim to drive deeper penetration and adoption of our solutions across the country.
๐๐ญ๐๐ฒ ๐ข๐ง๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ๐๐ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฅ๐๐ญ๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ฒ ๐ฃ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ WhatsApp Channel now! ๐๐ฒ
๐ญ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐ฌ ๐ Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram
