Kaspersky Partners With Ferrari, And Not Just For Advertising

More than two years after security specialists at Kaspersky began to sponsor the Ferrari racing team, the deal has been extended to include actual information security.

Now, it involves not just the Kaspersky name on the bodies of Formula 1 cars, but also the company’s software protecting 7,000 devices at Ferrari.

Eventually, the collaboration will be extended to all mobile devices used by Ferrari teams around the world, and security solutions will be installed not just in offices but also on the production lines.

Racing red

A five-year agreement was signed at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, Italy, after a period of extensive testing, during which Ferrari was trying to establish whether Kaspersky could do a better job than its previous security partner, Trend Micro.

“To protect the strategic intellectual property at Ferrari, we decided to use a vendor who had a complete security solution that would provide coverage for any endpoint, and was able to provide specialized customised options that met our needs,” explained Vittorio Boero, CIO at Ferrari.

“In the middle of 2012 we initiated a testing phase to analyse the compatibility of the software with our engineering departments. The results were satisfactory, so in addition to being a sponsor, we welcomed Kaspersky as a security technology partner who can follow the complexity typical of our daily operations.”

For Kaspersky, this partnership marks the recognition of the push towards the BYOD market following the launch of Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business in January.

“Our laboratories are able to identify more than 200,000 strains of malware every day. The majority of IT professionals underestimate this threat,” said Alexander Erofeev, chief marketing officer at Kaspersky. “91 percent of organisations have faced an external threat in the last 12 months, but 85 percent also suffered security incidents from within.”

“Higher security investments result in lower damage costs.”

As part of the deal, one Kaspersky employee will be stationed at Maranello over the coming months to provide round-the-clock support.

Below, you can see Eugene Kaspersky and his crew visiting the Ferrari Museum and even sneaking in a chat with Fernando Alonso.

This story originally appeared on TechWeekEurope Italy.

Additional reporting and translation by Max Smolaks.

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