Miroslav Trnka, one of founders of Eset (source: Sme)
Two weeks after the war in Ukraine started, the Slovak software company Eset stopped selling products in Russia and Belarus. From a business point of view, it was a painful decision, but its owners and managers wanted to demonstrate their attitude towards unprovoked military aggression against Slovakia's eastern neighbour.
Eset has also had negative run-ins with the Russian regime in the past, as it was the target of its coordinated disinformation campaign. "Of course, they do not like us revealing their criminal activities," says the company's founder and co-owner Miroslav Trnka.
The hateful and offensive narrative against Eset is also used by a part of the Slovak political scene. According to Trnka, this is the biggest threat to the future of the most successful Slovak IT company.
"When an active politician generates lies about Eset on a daily basis, it is an attack on an unprecedented scale. If this were to become the norm, it would probably be better to move elsewhere, where such things do not happen," says Trnka in an interview for INDEX magazine.
On March 8 Eset announced that it was ending the selling of its products in Russia and Belarus. Was it supposed to express that you consider Russia to be an aggressor and that the company stands behind Ukraine?
Of course, it is obvious who is the aggressor. Moreover when it comes to cybersecurity, Russia has been waging war against Europe for many years. Many global companies have shown their disapproval of Russian aggression by no longer selling their products on the Russian market. If clothing brands could do it, why not IT companies?
What did employees say?
No one objected.
Did your competition do something similar? Did they also stop selling products in Russia?
I do not know if all of them did. But, for example, the Czech company Avast did so pretty much around the same time as we.
To what extent do Russia and Belarus contribute to Eset's sales?
In terms of gross turnover, it was around €14 million per year, so for us it was not an insignificant market. In fact, Eset was number two on the Russian antivirus programs market. I think we were so successful that even Kaspersky became nervous about it and started developing activities to discredit our local business partner (Yevgeny Kaspersky is the founder of the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab - Ed. note).
We let it go too far
Many educated Russians fled abroad after the declaration of mobilisation. Do you think this will weaken the Russian government's cyberwarfare capabilities against the West and Russian cybercrime performance?
Frankly, the extent of the damage that the Russians have done in Europe is due to the almost non-existent reaction on the part of European states. That is, the lack of defense. I think there is a better way to defend against attacks from Russia. As for the war, it will heavily affect business in Russia and its economy. In fact it already has. Confidence in Russia as a partner will be destroyed for decades. Russia will pay a high price for this.
Can Russian and Chinese cyber threats, for example, open up ways for Eset to do business with Western government organisations?
