Kaspersky places “cyber immunity” at the heart of its rebrand

Kaspersky Lab recently announced its rebranding to plain Kaspersky, with an accompanying evolution of its corporate logo. The firm says the revamp reflects the transformation occurring in cyber security as the Fourth Industrial Revolution sets in, and it was accompanied by the adoption of a new mission of “building a safer world.”

Kaspersky went on to say, “The new branding reflects the evolution of our business focus from cyber security towards the wider concept of cyber immunity”. One could assume “cyber immunity” is more or less an interchangeable term to “cyber resilience”, with CEO and Founder Eugene Kaspersky quoted as saying, “Building upon our successful track record in protecting the world from cyber threats, we’ll also help build a safer world that’s immune to cyber threats.”

Refreshing and uplifting a business’ mission and branding to better suit evolving circumstances is all well-and-good, though the proof of how genuine and effective such a programme is will only be known in the months and years to come. Attitudes, outlooks, processes, expectations, ways of conducting business and interacting with clients and partners all must be reviewed and modified should a rebranding exercise be authentic and represent more than just a change of font and colour schemes.

Kaspersky has been on an aggressive damage limitation drive for a couple of years now off the back of concerns raised by US federal authorities in 2017 that the company may have possible links to Russian security services.  Compounding the allegations were fears over whether Kaspersky software, including its well-regarded antivirus programmes, contained backdoors that could allow Russian intelligence access into systems.

The stakes are thus much higher for this brand refresh given Kaspersky’s desire to move passed the negative headlines of the last couple of years and emerge as a cyber security firm widely regarded as being committed to higher levels of trust and transparency.

Call it cyber immunity or cyber resilience, the industry’s move to want to shore up hyperconnected digital systems and ensure they are better able to repel, withstand, or recover quickly from cyber threats and attempted attacks is a positive one. The re-imagined Kaspersky should be given every opportunity to strive towards attaining this bar.