By ; Basel Khaled

Kaspersky has released its latest Corporate Social Responsibility report, highlighting the company’s social, environmental, educational and charitable initiatives. The new edition covers the work being done to build a safer, more prosperous global community in 2019-2020. This includes supporting 2,300 healthcare organizations amid a huge global challenge, protecting people from stalkerware and helping those in need succeed.

Providing people with the opportunity to enjoy technological progress to its full potential has always been at the center of Kaspersky’s business. Within our corporate social responsibility strategy, we are taking our efforts one step further. These include, but are not limited to, initiatives aimed at making a positive impact on the environment, educating people on how to explore the internet safely, supporting our employees’ social and volunteering initiatives, and providing a diverse and inclusive workplace where our employees can flourish. The company resultantly initiated an expedition to the Kuril Islands in 2019 to raise awareness about the island chain’s fragile ecosystem. Additional examples include the launch of several other eco-initiatives among employees, and an organized expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro for athletes with Down Syndrome. In 2020, the company has continued to focus on building a supportive global community that is diverse, inclusive and sustainable, so that we can become better, together.

“As a community, we face different challenges, and the events of this year have shown once again that we can overcome these difficulties and become stronger only by joining forces and supporting each other. Through our social commitments and partnerships, we are uniting our efforts to create a positive impact through technology and build a more sustainable world. I’m proud to see that for more than 20 years we’ve become such a strong team, ready to not only keep the digital world safe, but also to invest time and resources to make this world a better place and to help people thrive”, commented Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky.

Supporting the medical community during the pandemic

The challenging epidemiological situation has touched everyone’s lives and as doctors were fighting to save peoples’ lives, it turned out that medical organizations needed stronger protection from cybercriminals who were targeting them. To support healthcare institutions during these challenging times, Kaspersky offered free licenses for its core endpoint security products to hospitals and clinics worldwide, to protect their computers and cloud infrastructures. To date, Kaspersky has provided 350,000 licenses for doctors and healthcare personnel in 2,300 healthcare organizations across 46 countries.

In addition to protecting medical organizations from cyberthreats, Kaspersky supported and contributed to a number of international and regional initiatives this year. This includes donating masks to a hospital in Wuhan, supplying the elderly and those in need with masks and other protective equipment in the United States, and supporting the manufacturing of special protector pillows for ICUs in Russia. In May, Kaspersky also launched a global fundraising campaign among its employees to help charities all over the world. When the fundraising campaign came to an end, Kaspersky doubled all the funds raised and donated it to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Keeping up the fight against stalkerware

In 2019, Kaspersky started its ongoing initiative to tackle the problem of stalkerware, a commercially available software that allows users to spy on other people unnoticed, that is often used to abuse the privacy of current or former partners. The company has become the first cybersecurity vendor to not only notify users when stalkerware is installed on their devices, but also to explain the dangers posed. This has been achieved by upgrading its Android solution with a ‘Privacy Alert’ warning. Kaspersky is continuously working on improving the detection rate of stalkerware, and at the Stalkerware Test 2020 results, Kaspersky’s Internet Security solution for Android devices performed best-in-class, with a 95% detection rate both in November 2019 and May 2020.  

Kaspersky also continues to share its knowledge with fellow members of the Coalition Against Stalkerware, co-founded in November 2019 together with nine other organizations. To date, the Coalition has brought together 26  international organizations, from IT security companies to advocacy and non-profit groups, who combine their expertise in domestic violence survivor support, digital rights advocacy, and cybersecurity, to address the criminal behavior perpetrated by stalkerware and to raise general awareness about this important issue. The Coalition is constantly growing and welcomes organizations that want to make a positive impact.

Supporting charitable organizations globally

Kaspersky’s company culture is built upon giving back to the communities in which it serves, driven by employees around the globe who support charitable causes through donations, volunteering and organizing events to help people in need to receive equal opportunities. In 2019 and 2020, Kaspersky helped athletes with Down Syndrome to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro, launched several fundraising campaigns, helped children and young people from low-income families, and supported an orphanage in the town of Udomlya, among many other initiatives. In 2020, Kaspersky has also marked the 10^th anniversary of protecting the Dubai Autism Center from cyberattacks, fraud, and threats.

The full report is available at https://csr.kaspersky.com/en/. The website is hosted on sustainable platform Greenhost, which uses renewable wind energy to reduce energy consumption as part of its strive for net zero carbon emissions.