Boris Levin will look for insiders for money
Former co-owner and top manager of Merlion Boris Levin founded the company “Security and Law” to offer information security services, including finding insiders and investigating data leaks. The company will partner with SearchInform and InfoWatch. Both confirm that there is increasing demand for these services, especially after the data breaches in 2022. However, experts expect that the new project will mainly attract small and medium-sized businesses due to rising costs.
Former co-owner of Merlion IT company Boris Levin founded Security and Law LLC, according to Kommersant in SPARK Interfax. The company was registered in late 2022 and focuses on auditing organizations' internal and external risks, implementing threat prevention systems, providing legal and consulting services, as stated on its website.
As Mr. Levinthe company will also distribute SearchInform and InfoWatch solutions, such as DLP systems (Data Loss Prevention – systems for detecting and preventing leaks).
A monitoring group will be established to handle anti-phishing services, domain blocking, leak prevention, etc. He did not reveal the investment in the project, but mentioned that the company will provide services for retail, industry, financial organizations, and other sectors.
Boris Levin in 1999-2002, he led the Techmarket company (cellular retail, later transferred to Euroset), and from 2002 he served as the vice president for security at Euroset. He also worked in the security service of TNK-BP (acquired by Rosneft), was on the Board of Directors of Realist Bank, and owned a stake in the Cypriot Merlion Group Limited, the parent structure of the Russian IT distributor Merlion. In October 2020, Boris Levin along with co-owners of Merlion Oleg Karchev, Vladislav Mangutov, and Alexei Abramov was detained for murder with arson (see Kommersant of October 26, 2020). Mister Levin was in a pre-trial detention center until August 2021, was acquitted, and received rehabilitation rights (see Kommersant on January 18).
InfoWatch confirmed to Kommersant that they are in talks with Security and Law as an “additional channel for business development.”
Boris Levina — extensive experience in building a cybersecurity system in large companies, Lev Matveev, head of the SearchInform board of directors, noted: “Our clients have a request for a comprehensive audit of external and internal risks and leak protection services.” But even if the new company “has the legacy of Merlion in terms of contacts with large customers, entering the information security segment will not be easy,” a Kommersant source in the IT distribution market believes: “It is not enough to have solutions, you need a staff of specialists, knowledge of the implementation of such projects “.
Among the major participants in the Russian market of DLP systems, in addition to SearchInform and InfoWatch, one can name, for example, Zecurion and Garda Technologies. The leaders in the segment until 2022 were foreign vendors that left the Russian Federation after the start of hostilities in Ukraine – Symantec, Forcepoint, Intel Security, etc. At the same time, the demand for data leak detection and prevention services in the country has grown sharply against the backdrop of massive hacker attacks.
According to Kaspersky Lab, the amount of personal data that got into the network as a result of the largest leaks in 2022 exceeded 1.5 billion records (see Kommersant of December 16).
Against the background of an increase in the number of attacks and data leaks, as well as tightening of regulation, the demand for comprehensive security services is growing, the interlocutor of Kommersant admits in the market. However, he clarifies, such products are more in demand by small and medium-sized businesses, large companies are building their own systems or ordering the services of large vendors. Rustem Khairetdinov, Deputy General Director of Garda Technologies, confirms that there is a demand for such solutions among small companies: “Here, the issue of obtaining all security from one source with a guarantee may be more important than unique expertise.”
