The Russians are trying to make a Russian software company non-Russian. Its background can also be found in Brno

Russian technology companies are not having an easy time on the market due to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. Yandex, for example, has canceled preparations for the opening of a development center in Prague and is reeling in problems. The director of Kaspersky Lab has left here, salespeople like Alza have left, and local customers are also disappearing in large numbers. Thanks to an interesting operation, one of the prominent, although not very well-known software companies from Russia is now trying to uproot its roots and convince the market that it is no longer from Putin’s country. The roots of the action revolving around Positive Technologies can also be traced to the Czech Republic.

Positive Technologies was established in 2003, when they formed it in Moscow Dmitry Maksimov, Yuri Maksimov a Evgeny Kireev. The first software they went into the world with was XSpider, which was used for scanning cyber vulnerabilities. In the following years, the company significantly expanded its offer and made a strong name for itself in the security community. Focuses on penetration testing, reverse engineering and consulting. Its customers include a number of players from telecommunications, banking and other market segments.

The Russian company grew to 1,300 employees, opened offices in the United States, Great Britain, South Korea, Italy and other countries. In 2021, it entered the Moscow stock exchange MOEX, where it still operates today. The market value of Positive Technologies there is 60 billion rubles. Last year’s sales rose to 7.1 billion rubles, with a net profit of 1.9 billion rubles.

Thanks to this, Positive Technologies ranks among the twenty most important Russian IT groups, but in reality it reaches higher ranks. In 2020, the Russian Ministry of Digitalization, Communications and Media included the company in the list of key companies for the Russian digital economy.

American sanctions

The company gradually wrapped up a number of activities thanks to which it strengthened its name in the community. For example, a unit called PT SWARM including a team of researchers discovered a number of zero-day vulnerabilities in technologies from companies such as Intel, Cisco, Siemens, Citrix, VMware and others.

Positive also runs an information website SecurityLab.ru, which is the most visited in the industry in Russian-speaking countries. Other activities include the Positive Hack Days conference. It is probably the largest event of its kind in Europe, where cyber security experts, various state officials and the like gather.

The international activities of the Russian IT company naturally did not escape the attention of the Western components. The United States placed Positive Technologies on the sanctions list in 2021. The US claims the company was supposed to provide support to the FSB and other Russian state organizations. He was also said to have held conferences and various community gatherings where Russia’s secret services allegedly recruited hackers. As in other similar cases, the US does not give any concrete evidence. Positive denies the accusation.

You can only find a few cases where the company cooperated with the Russian government, but they are not sensational. For example, Positive Technologies prevented cyber attacks on infrastructure during the Sochi Olympics. He also participates in the Russian Cyber ​​Security Education Program. Positive describes itself as an “independent, international company”. However, the case of Huawei shows that today in the West, ICT suppliers are judged more on the basis of credibility and the countries, or rather, their legal systems, from which they originate. Therefore, Positive does not record Russian roots.

Conversion to SecurityGen

Here the story begins to break into current events and towards the Czech Republic. In 2017, Positive Technologies established a research and development center in Brno. Domestic offices began to specialize in the development of systems to protect 4G and 5G mobile networks. However, České s.r.o. went into liquidation this year. Instead, the SecurityGen Czech entity was established under the parent company SecurityGen.

SecurityGen is a new company with roots in Positive Technologies. He is its founder Amit Nath, who served as Positive’s managing director until January. His partner is the former technical head of a Russian company Dmitry Kurbatov. And two Italian investors joined Paolo Emiliani a Massimo Romagnoli.

The quartet, according to Nath, bought some assets from Positive Technologies and are now trying to make SecurityGen a truly Russia-independent company. The amount of investment or other property involvement of the original owners is not known information. In any case, SecurityGen today presents itself as a young startup and does not draw attention to its roots in Positive Technologies anywhere. All operations are to be completed by autumn.

Along with this, there is a transfer of employees from Russia. SecurityGen is thus another of the many ICT companies that move their people from Russia to Turkey, Moldova, Georgia, Dubai and other areas. According to various statistics, a hundred thousand and possibly more IT professionals disappeared from Russia during this brain drain. They are not welcome in the Czech Republic because visas are not granted. That’s why JetBrains, who are closing offices in Russia, are not moving to us, even though they have their world headquarters in Prague.

Development in Brno

SecurityGen currently employs 53 people, a fraction of what Positive Technologies does. Twelve of them are still said to be working in Russia. Others are in Montenegro and Georgia, and the rest are in Brno. Representatives of the Brno offices did not respond to a request for an interview.

According to SecurityGen, it is now focusing on 5G security, which is a very hot political, security and regulatory topic even in view of China, Huawei, ZTE, Open RAN and other topics. The firm says it now serves 40 operators in 26 countries. In addition to technology, it also inherited customers from Positive Technologies.

SecurityGen has three products. A new feature is the Artificial Cybersecurity Expert (AEC) used to simulate cyber attacks. It is also about detection and protection tools. The company is aiming for a market with an annual size of 300 million dollars and year-on-year growth of around 20 percent.

SecurityGen in the Czech Republic can collect people with know-how. Among the employees (or former members of Positive Technologies) you can find, for example, experts from the American company Mavenir. It runs a development center in the Czech Republic, where it develops and supports technologies for operators from all over the world. Mavenir has 330 employees here and is one of the main promoters Open RAN. He is involved in the development of 5G core and RAN.