Trend Micro, a security solutions provider headquartered in Tokyo, announced that it has received a certificate for its Enterprise Security 10.0 software suite from Russia’s Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC), as reported earlier this week by IKS Consulting, a firm studying the Russian IT and telecom markets.
Trend Micro claims to be the first of the “big three” international computer anti-virus makers — the others being Symantec and McAfee — to receive the certification.
In Russia, where Trend Micro has been available for a long time, private enterprises are free to choose their means of production, which includes the production of software. However, information security systems must have the FSTEC certification if they are to be used by governmental bodies, certain state-run firms, and organizations working with personal data, such as banks, collection agencies, and mobile operators.
Trend Micro’s Enterprise Security 10.0 product received the 4th-level certificate, which means that all of its functions are declared and that it can be used to protect confidential information, including state secrets. Additionally, the product received the highest control level (first grade of three), qualifying the product to be used in the most advanced and secret governmental applications.
The certification process, conducted by government-appointed firm NPO Echelon, lasted more than a year: Trend Micro applied for the permit in March 2010 and received the compliance certificate on May 19, 2011. The certificate will be valid for three years, until May 19, 2014.
Trend Micro believes that the certification will strengthen its position in the corporate market and will allow Russian system integrators to start using its software in governmental applications, thus paving the company’s way into the public sector, a market that has been dominated until now by the domestic market leader — and the world’s fourth largest anti-virus maker – Kaspersky Lab.
Kaspersky, the brainchild of Russian security expert Eugene Kaspersky, received the FSTEC certification in 2009. However, the company’s first such government-issued certificate dates back to 1998, according to the company’s website.
Governmental contracts have helped Kaspersky acquire strong positions on the domestic market, but Kaspersky Lab has also started conquering the global market in the area of security solutions: the revenue of the company jumped 38% to $538 million in 2010, enabling the company to contend for third place in the global race of security solutions providers.
