Eugene Kaspersky's Son Possibly Kidnapped

According to Russian media reports, the 20-year-old son of Yevgeny Kaspersky, better known in the security industry as Eugene Kaspersky and founder of antivirus software company Kaspersky Lab, has been kidnapped by thugs who are asking for a €3 million ransom.

Russian news website Life News reports [Google translation] that Eugene Kaspersky's son, Ivan Kaspersky was kidnapped while on his way to work on April 19.

Ivan works for his mother's company, InfoWatch, whose offices are located in an industrial area in north-west of Moscow.

The news site claims Eugene Kaspersky was in London when he learned of the kidnapping and flew to Moscow immediately.

In a blog post that has since been removed from Naked Security, but is still available in Google's cache, Graham Cluley, a technical consultant at Sophos, claims he chatted with Eugene Kaspersky last night and he didn't seem worried.

Furthermore, the antivirus expert says that according to a Kaspersky Lab contact, the businessman always intended to fly out to Moscow that evening.

BBC reports that an official source told the Interfax news agency the Russian secret service together with the police has been actively searching for Ivan for at least two days.

Life News claims the kidnappers are asking Eugene Kaspersky for €3 million ($4.3m) in order to return Ivan safely, but no other news source has independently confirmed the kidnapping theory.

Kaspersky ranked 125th on an extended list of the richest people in Russia published recently by Forbes. His net worth is estimated at $800 million.

There are also rumors, according to which the kidnappers obtained Ivan's work address from his profile page on Rusian social networking site Vkontakte.

According to Marker.ru [Google translation], after this was publicized, Ivan's Vkontakte page was modified to make everything private. The site's administration declined to comment on the changes, but an insider source said the company's staff was not responsible for it.