Russian Cybersecurity Firm Kaspersky Eyes Biz Expansion in India Amid Rapid Digitalisation

Russian Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky is betting on India as a strategic growth market, recognising the country's rapid digitalisation and increasing cybersecurity needs, and aims to expand local teams and strengthen collaborations across various sectors.

General Manager for India region at Kaspersky Jaydeep Singh shared that the company has tripled its workforce in the country in the past two years, with new hires in sales, pre-sales, and support roles.

He also highlighted the presence of global research teams based in India that monitor more than 900 advanced persistent threat (APT) groups daily.

"In the last two years, we have tripled our employee base in India...We have part of the global research teams based out of India who do the threat hunting," Singh told PTI on the sidelines of GITEX Asia 2025.

GReAT (Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Team) plays a crucial role in Kaspersky's global threat intelligence operations. Kaspersky is investing in digital footprint intelligence (DFI) analysts to bolster services, including brand monitoring and takedown operations.

Kaspersky views India as a key innovation hub and plans to continue expanding its resources and research capabilities within the country.

"We are expanding quite a bit both in respect to our key resources, and researchers in the Indian geography," Singh noted.

The company emphasises its commitment to building local talent and is actively collaborating with government agencies and private sector entities to enhance cybersecurity awareness and infrastructure. Kaspersky is engaging with state governments and nodal agencies like CERT-In to develop cyber defence programmes and training initiatives.

Singh also praised the Indian regulatory environment, highlighting the pragmatic nature of acts like the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP) and robust guidelines from agencies such as the RBI and SEBI. He anticipates further developments in AI regulation and expressed Kaspersky's willingness to collaborate and provide input to policymakers.

With a growing base of internet users, the need for robust cyber technologies is rapidly increasing, especially to protect internet-facing assets, mobile handsets, and operational technology (OT) systems.

Kaspersky detects over 450,000 unique malware samples daily, leveraging AI and machine learning in its research and mitigation strategies.

Singh emphasised the need to create a "cyber immune world" where systems are highly resistant to breaches, particularly in both IT and OT environments.

"What we are seeing in the last decade or so is that the intensity of attacks on the IT systems and the OT systems has increased tremendously. So, we expect that cyber immunity as a concept will become stronger and will become more relevant over the next decade time also.

"So, Kaspersky is investing big time in India, in the last 2 years we have increased our commitment nearly three times. What we looking at is India to be a innovation hub for us. A hub for a lot of collaboration with agencies, and we see great potential over the next decades' time to be part of the India's growth story and a part of this cyber resilience story for the Indian market," Singh said.

The Russian firm recorded a double-digit growth in India in 2024.