The move comes as businesses are showing increased interest in having confidence in their technology providers, with more than 70% of IT decision makers declaring a strong importance of having ongoing assurance that the IT solutions they use are operating in a known and trusted state.

The new centres are part of the Kaspersky Global Transparency Initiative (GTI) and aim to open the “black box” of technology, increasing customer confidence in the company’s solutions. With the 2017 launch of the GTI, Kaspersky became the first cyber security company to open its source-code for external review. The initiative aims to engage the broader community in validating and verifying the trustworthiness of Kaspersky’s products, internal processes, and business operations.

The opening of the new Transparency Centers reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to enhance transparency and accountability for its customers and partners. Having added new facilities in Utrecht and Rome, Kaspersky now claims it has the biggest network of such centres in Europe, along with hubs in Madrid and Zurich.

Operating in the company’s offices, centres in Rome and Utrecht, open for Kaspersky partners, customers, and government cybersecurity authorities, serve exclusively for the blue piste option, the most sought-after option with Transparency Center visitors since the opening of the first facility in 2018. The blue piste represents a general overview of Kaspersky’s engineering and data processing practices, its products and services. During the visit, partners and customers will be met by a team of Kaspersky experts, who will answer any questions regarding the company’s data processing practices and the functioning of Kaspersky’s solutions, together with a live demonstration of a source-code review.

Kaspersky Chief Business Development Officer Andrey Efremov commented: “Our Global Transparency Initiative has been running for five years. Throughout that journey, we’ve constantly searched for more efficient mechanisms that help our partners and customers enhance trust and assurance in our solutions and services. The launch of new Transparency Centers, based on the company’s vast experience and engagement with businesses worldwide, confirms providing greater transparency about how our technology works and data is treated is critical. Our commitment to providing this transparency continues.”

With the latest addition of two new facilities, Kaspersky now operates nine Transparency Centers in Europe, APAC, North America and Latin America.