32_Kaspersky Lab

Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab has long been a magnet for Russia’s young computer geniuses, luring them away from their usual forte, hacking, to viral analysis. That brain trust has helped turn Kaspersky Lab into the world’s fourth-largest–and most interesting–antivirus-program provider. When it launched in 1997 “with zero investment and external funding,” recalls founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky, “we knew that innovation and quality were the only feasible way to achieve international success.” Today, its engines power antivirus solutions for Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco, and it has expanded into mobile. In 2010, it released technology that protects mobile devices without straining their batteries, ingeniously spreading the power burden throughout a cluster of phones that share the security system.