[MestaMachine]

Eugene Kaspersky’s son has been kidnapped

If you don’t know who Eugene Kaspersky is, you will almost certainly recognize his last name. Eugene is the co-founder of the very successful and highly regarded Russian security company Kaspersky Lab, whose security suite protects millions of PCs around the world from hackers.

But today Eugene’s mind will not be on software security, instead the safety of his son will be top priority. News is coming out of Moscow that his 20-year-old son Ivan Kaspersky has been kidnapped and a ransom of $4.3 million issued for his release.

Eugene was in London when he heard the news, but has understandably since flown back to Moscow. Ivan is Eugene’s youngest son and is currently studying his fourth year of a Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics degree. Apprently he has been missing for two days when he was taken while travelling to work.

For the moment Kaspersky Lab is not confirming or denying the news, and there are no further details as to how the local police are handling the kidnapping. We hope they have some good leads and manage to return Ivan to his father safely.

Outside of energy companies, Kaspersky Lab is seen as one of the few Russian businesses that has managed to succeed internationally. With that being the case, whoever kidnapped Ivan likely knew how successful his father has been and decided to attempt to extort millions of dollars from him.

[MestaMachine]

Russian software tycoon Kaspersky's son 'missing'

The son of Russian software entrepreneur Yevgeny Kaspersky has gone missing in Moscow and may have been kidnapped, Russian media report.

Secret service and regular police have been searching for Ivan Kaspersky, 20, for at least two days, a police source told Interfax news agency.

His father's firm, Kaspersky Lab, told a newspaper it could not confirm news he had been abducted.

Yevgeny Kaspersky made his fortune developing anti-virus software.

News of his son's abduction was reported by Russian news website Life News, quoting its own sources.

The kidnappers are demanding 3m euros (£2.6m; $4.3m) for Ivan's safe return, the website says.

According to the unconfirmed report, he was snatched while on his way to work in Moscow on Tuesday.

When contacted by Russian newspaper Gazeta, Kaspersky Lab said it could neither confirm nor deny the report.

There has been no official comment on the story.

Kaspersky Lab is regarded outside Russia as one of the country's few business success stories not related to the energy sector.

The US business magazine Fast Company recently ranked Kaspersky Lab among the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies worldwide.

[caww]

Interesting information Mesta....just catching up on this thread....hopefully his son will be returned.

By the way I suspect we’ll see many more kidnappings of the wealthy when the crap hits the fan.