KASPERSKY LAB ITALIA SRL

Their core work

Kaspersky Lab Italia is the Italian branch of the global cybersecurity company Kaspersky, contributing applied cybersecurity expertise to EU-funded innovation projects. They focus on threat intelligence, real-time security monitoring, risk assessment, and privacy-enhancing technologies for public administrations, SMEs, and urban transport systems. Their work bridges commercial cybersecurity products with research-driven solutions for European digital security challenges, particularly around GDPR compliance and citizen privacy protection.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Early projects (2017-2019) concentrated on operational cybersecurity — real-time monitoring, threat intelligence, gamified security awareness training, and knowledge sharing for local governments. From 2020 onward, the focus shifted decisively toward privacy, compliance, and citizen-facing protections: GDPR, transparency, privacy-enhancing technologies, and data protection in urban transport. This reflects a broader industry shift from reactive threat defense to proactive privacy-by-design and regulatory compliance.

Moving from traditional cybersecurity operations toward privacy engineering and regulatory compliance solutions — a strong fit for future projects involving digital public services and smart city infrastructure.

How they like to work

Kaspersky Lab Italia operates exclusively as a participant, never as coordinator, contributing specialist cybersecurity expertise to larger consortia. With 61 unique partners across 17 countries from just 4 projects, they work in large, diverse consortia typical of H2020 Innovation Actions. Their role is that of an industry expert embedded in research-heavy teams, providing commercial-grade security knowledge and tools rather than driving project governance.

Broad European network spanning 61 unique partners across 17 countries, built entirely through large Innovation Action consortia. The geographic spread suggests no strong regional bias — they connect widely across the EU research ecosystem.

What sets them apart

As the Italian arm of a major global cybersecurity company, they bring commercial product knowledge and real-world threat intelligence that most academic or SME partners cannot match. Their specific combination of public sector cybersecurity experience with GDPR/privacy expertise makes them a natural fit for projects requiring both technical security implementation and regulatory compliance. For consortium builders, they offer industry credibility and access to Kaspersky's global threat data infrastructure.

Highlights from their portfolio

• TRAPEZE
  Largest budget (EUR 405K) and most directly aligned with the privacy/GDPR compliance direction that defines their recent trajectory.
• GEIGER
  Unique focus on democratizing cybersecurity for SMEs and micro-enterprises through reverse mentoring and accessible tools — unusual for a large security vendor.
• CitySCAPE
  Combines cybersecurity, cloud services, and urban transport — a cross-sector application showing their ability to work beyond traditional IT security contexts.