Kaspersky targets lion's share

Kaspersky Lab's channel sales director for Southeast Asia, Jimmy Fong, said the latest versions of KIS and KAV would double the firm's share of the Thai computer-security software market from 30 per cent to between 60 and 70 per cent by the end of next year.

"KIS 2012, our flagship product, will help the company greatly to increase its share of the Thai market," Fong said.

He said a standout feature of KIS 2012 is the Kaspersky Security Centre with Hybrid Protection, which is a cloud-based system designed to protect computers from malware (malicious software designed to corrupt or illegally exploit computer operating systems). The rise of cloud-based computing - the use of computer systems that share resources, software and information via networks - has increased the threat posed by malware, Fong said.

An estimated 30 billion pieces of malware are currently circulating on the Internet, and the number increases every second, Fong said. According to Kaspersky Lab, more than 30 million spam messages are sent every day; more than 19 million computer viruses were created in 2010; and more than 3,500 new virus signatures and 30,000 new threats to computer systems are detected per day.

Fong said the company planned to increase the number of resellers in the Thai market through its sole distributor, Icom Tech, to expand its market channels.

"About 70 per cent of the Thai security-software market is pirated software, so when we talk about the market, we mean about 30 per cent of the total market. This is why, in Thailand, we still focus on marketing via offline channels at retail shops, rather than the online channels we use in the West," Fong said.