Moscow dynamos keep threats at bay

Madeline Bennett

I recently returned from Moscow where I visited Russian antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab. I must admit that before leaving London I felt slightly wary about flying to a city that was experiencing its coldest spell for many years – especially considering the UK’s tendency to grind to a standstill at the first flake of snow. But fortunately Muscovites have a lot more experience of dealing with sub-zero temperatures and have built up a solid infrastructure in and around the city to cope.

At the crack of dawn each morning, trucks were sent out around the city to shovel up the snow that had fallen overnight and dump it into the frozen rivers. This system was supported by hordes of men on the ground, employed by the city to sweep the snow off the pavements and paths.

We managed to complete our tour of Kaspersky’s headquarters without too much trouble from the poor weather, and in the process witnessed a real-life rendition of the forthcoming Channel 4 comedy The IT Crowd.

For those of you who haven’t got around to downloading the first episode from the Channel 4 web site, the show has its terrestrial debut this Friday.

The setting is the basement of Reynholm Industries, where we follow the exploits of the IT department – staffed by two stereotypical techie geeks and their female counterpart, who has wangled her way to become head of IT without any actual technical knowledge.

How successful the show is in regards to comedy value is debatable, but I must admit it does hit the spot with its characters. Having been shown around the virus research labs at the Kaspersky building, it’s safe to say the makers of The IT Crowd have got the look of certain IT departments down to a tee. Kaspersky had the obligatory rows of men beavering away through lines of code for hours at a time (apparently there is a female analyst, but she wasn’t around that day), while a phone rang and rang in the background before finally getting picked up.

But it was also reassuring to see the workings of the Russian group. This IT crowd works on 12-hour rotating shifts, dealing with about 500 new threats and releasing up to 20 new signatures each day – mostly with direct support from the firm’s head of research, Eugene Kaspersky.

According to Kaspersky, the biggest threat for organisations this year will be from crimeware – the term the company applies to any financially-driven attack, such as phishing or keylogging. These sophisticated and rapidly-changing attacks pose a big challenge for the lab.

So while the IT industry continues to work out ways of attracting and retaining women, older workers and university graduates, maybe it should also ensure that it continues to attract people willing to take on the type of relentless work I saw in Moscow – whatever age, gender or background.