Case Study: Kaspersky Labs Implemention for Golden Telecom
Golden Telecom is a top supplier of telecommunications equipment and Internet services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The company offers local connections via dedicated networks, data transfer services, inter-city and international connections using a network comprised of 145 combined points of access in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Golden Telecom’s communication infrastructure includes fiber optic main channels and their own satellite network built upon a base of large ground stations located in 13 major Russian cities. The fiber-optic network stretches nearly 50,000 kilometers with a total capacity of more than 150 megabits per second.
Golden Telecom also provides both dedicated and dial-up Internet access for personal and corporate users, cellular telephone services and Internet information services via a range of network brands among which is the popular “Russia-On-Line” portal.
In today’s world any company with access to the Internet inevitably runs into virus attacks that pose a threat to the normal functioning of its information system. Companies ignoring this threat or implementing an inadequate approach to solving this problem draws upon itself unpredictable consequences, often expressed in the loss of client trust and significant monetary damage.
Viruses are a real danger demanding that a company implement an effective defense, in which a reliable, comprehensive anti-virus system is a central part. “It was self-evident from the very beginning that an anti-virus program should be on the computer of every employee. Therefore the question was not whether to install or not an anti-virus solution but rather simply which one?”, said Sergey Nazin, TeleRoss (Golden Telecom) IT Manager.
As Golden Telecom was formed as a patchwork quilt (due to mergers and acquisitions with other, previously independent companies) – the same “patch-work” situation occurred with their virus protection: each part of the company was solving this problem on their own. Hence different parts of the network used different anti-virus products and some areas did not use anti-virus programs at all. The absence of a centralized information security policy, unmanageable variety of computer protection software and the urgent need to minimize the possibility of a successful virus attack predetermined Golden Telecom’s decision to implement a unified, corporate standard anti-virus solution.
In order to implement this decision Golden Telecom management tested a number of the most popular anti-virus packages and decided in favor of Kaspersky Labs products and services. “Kaspersky Labs anti-virus software is the most dynamically developing product, it has the most comprehensive virus database. We often came across situations where only Kaspersky Anti-Virus was capable of fighting new types of viruses, while other anti-virus products did not even realize the existence of such viruses.” – said Sergey Nazin. Kaspersky Anti-Virus is unique with its centralized management system for network virus protection, which allows system administrators to remotely install, tune and upgrade the software. It also substantially reduces financial and personnel costs associated with network protection management and raises virus attack response efficiency. Other advantages held by Kaspersky Labs, which played a role in Golden Telecom’s choice, are 24-hour technical support and daily anti-virus database upgrades.
Today Kaspersky Anti-Virus protects all Golden Telecom workstations, servers and e-mail gateways. “This allows us to put minimum efforts, funds and resources into preventing virus attacks” – summarized Sergei Nazin.
“Kaspersky Labs sets itself apart with its progressive approach to customers. The software’s interaction with users is very well organized and ensures maximum efficiency in reacting to new viruses. We therefore are very pleased to work with Kaspersky Labs and are sure that our collaboration will be long term” – said Sergey Likharev, TeleRoss (Golden Telecom) Commercial Director.