Kaspersky's Stephan Neumeier named Executive of the Year at SBR Management Excellence Awards

The Managing Director for APAC is bringing a new philosophy to digital security.

Recent data from Kaspersky Security Network showed 11 million attacks caused by servers hosted in Singapore, making the city the 10th hottest source of a cyberattack. The cybersecurity company detected close to 5 million web threats and more than 7 million local incidents in the city-state, including attacks caused by malware spread via removable devices and other ‘offline’ methods.

As the world becomes more digitised and globalised, Kaspersky’s Managing Director for APAC, Stephan Neumeier, said that focus has shifted to protecting the various upcoming technologies, which would entail a collaboration between the public sector as well as large private companies, startups, and small and medium-sized businesses.

Neumeier said that Kaspersky is investing heavily on its research and development (R&D) team to uncover threats, cyber-espionage, malware, and other cybercriminal trends across the world.

In an interview with Singapore Business Review, Stephan talks about the company’s rebranding for which he won the Executive of the Year, as well as Kaspersky’s recent innovations, including an anti-drone technology software that allows you to detect, classify and neutralise a drone.

What does it mean for you to win the Executive of the Year for IT Services?
I’m thankful for the recognition of excellence in the cybersecurity field. It definitely wasn’t without challenges, but this will not be possible without good products and trust from our partners and users. Winning this award means that I am doing something right, and I am committed to continue what I’m doing, to constantly innovate in the way we think about our products, our approach to business and our vision for the future with our new mission of “building a safer world” as well as bringing a new philosophy of digital security.

You said in a press release that changes are not without any resistance within the company. Can you tell us more about the rebranding in 2019 and how you successfully communicated this to staff and stakeholders?
We had a number of initiatives to communicate the rebranding, such as inviting our Chief Marketing Officer to share about the company’s journey throughout the past two decades, how the company has evolved and grown along the way, leading to the need for a new brand. We also had a rebranding launch party among staff and partners, as well as fun quizzes to instil the new branding messaging in a fun way.

What are the future plans for the Asia Pacific Transparency Centre in Malaysia?
Upon the completion of our Asia Pacific Transparency Centre in Malaysia, we will be inviting customers and experts across the region to review the company’s source code of any publicly released products, software update and threat detection rules. We will definitely keep you updated upon the completion of the Transparency Centre.

What would be the company’s value proposition to existing and would-be clients?
We invest heavily on research and development (R&D), and believe that it is the core of our company. One-third of our employees are in the R&D team. We have a team of experts, known as the Global Research & Analysis Team (GReAT) operating at the very heart of Kaspersky, uncovering advanced persistent threats (APTs), cyber-espionage campaigns, major malware, ransomware, and underground cybercriminal trends across the world. In addition, our solutions are engineered in house, which is very much aligned with our vision of creating cyber-immunity—developing an ecosystem where everything connected is protected and all the systems are secure by design.

Amongst the myriad of tasks as CEO, what would be your primary focus at this point?
The primary focus would be to protect the various upcoming new technologies, by working with multiple parties including the public sector, large companies, small and medium-sized businesses as well as startups. We are also focused on protecting new technologies as the world has become more digitised and globalised. Some notable examples of our innovative solutions in 2019 include anti-drone technology—a software that allows you to detect, classify and neutralise a drone, creating interference in its communication with the control panel, allowing the drone to return to its operator or make a soft landing; as well as Kaspresso framework, an open-source framework for UI testing of mobile applications for Android. Even as the connectivity increases, the company will enable everyone to embrace, trust and use new innovations that are protected by its technologies.