Marcin Kleczynski

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Marcin Kleczynski (born November 1, 1989) is the chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of American Internet security company, Malwarebytes. After a period working as a computer repairer and being involved in forums in the mid 2000s, Kleczynski co-founded Malwarebytes with Bruce Harrison in January 2008. By 2014, Malwarebytes had treated over 250 million computers worldwide, with a range of popular products including Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit, and more recently, advanced anti-ransomware package Endpoint Security. Kleczynski was named one of Forbes Magazine's '30 Under 30' Rising Stars of Enterprise Technology in 2015.

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Early life and background

Kleczynski was born in Łódź, Poland in 1989. His family emigrated to the United States when he was just 3 years old. Despite moving from Poland at such a young age, he speaks fluent Polish. As a child he had aspirations to be a train conductor, and later, an airline pilot. He has retained his fascination with flying—in 2011 he obtained his pilot's license. [1] Kleczynski attended Fenton High School in Bensenville, Illinois and received his B.S. from the University of Illinois, where he was a member of the Theta Chi fraternity, in 2012. [1]

Career

As a teenager, Kleczynski found a job working as a technician in a computer repair shop in Chicago. [1] It was while working at the repair shop in Chicago that Kleczynski noticed that whenever infected computers arrived, they would generally reformat the computer, regardless if the infection was only minor. It was only when his mother's computer became infected that Kleczynski learned more about why the virus wasn't directly attacked, finding that neither McAfee nor Symantec would remove the malware from his system. [2] He later recalled "I've never been as angry as when I got my computer infected", and professed that his mother told him to fix it "under penalty of death". [3] It was only after Kleczynski posted on the forum SpywareInfo, popular at the time, that he was able to learn how to cure it, which took three days. The company was unofficially founded after this, when Kleczynski conversed and became friends with several of the editors of the forum, who tempted him to buy an unused domain from them. [2] As a result, Malwarebytes was informally established in 2004. [4]

Kleczynski began writing his own free software tools in Visual Basic. [5] With one of the site's regulars, Bruce Harrison, Kleczynski wrote the inaugural version of the company's software. [3] In 2006, worked with a college roommate to produce a freely available program called "RogueRemover", a utility which specialized in fighting against a type of infection known as "rogues", which scam computer users into giving away their credit card information through fake anti-virus software. RogueRemover proved instrumental in developing Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and Kleczynski was able to set up a forum which enabled him to improve the software through feedback. [2] Kleczynski and Harrison formally launched Malwarebytes on January 21, 2008 while Kleczynski was studying computer science at the University of Illinois. [2] [3] Bruce became the VP of Research for Malwarebytes and he further hired Doug Swanson, an experienced freeware development technician. [2] Kleczynski and Harrison reportedly made $600,000 in their first year of selling the software, despite not having met personally at the time. [6] Kleczynski reportedly made his first million by the time he was 19. [7]

In 2014, Malwarebytes received $30 million in funding from Highland Capital, and by the following year it announced that it had treated 250 million computers worldwide, representing about 20-25% of working business computers. [6] In June 2015, Kleczynski moved the firm's headquarters from 10 Almaden Boulevard in San Jose, California to a new 52,000 square feet (4,800 m2) office space on the two top floors of the 12-story 3979 Freedom Circle in Santa Clara, California. The new office is more than twice the size of the former office. The company reported a growth of 10 million users in just one year, from 25 to 35 million active users at the time, and an increase in revenue by 1653 % in 2014. [3] In January 2016, Malwarebytes unveiled advanced anti-ransomware package Endpoint Security, [8] and announced that it had raised $50 million in investment from Fidelity Management and Research Company. [9]

Working with the Malwarebytes team, Kleczynski has delivered several popular products in the Internet security field, including Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, which offers "real-time protection against malware, automated scanning, and automatic updating". [10] Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Mobile, a free Android app which protects smartphones, [11] Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit, which protects vulnerable programs from attack, [4] [12] and Malwarebytes Endpoint Security, an advanced anti-ransomware package. [8] [13] Kleczynski cited the reason for launching the anti-ransomware technology in 2016: "In the last six to 12 months, this has just gone so aggressively to the business environment. We see companies from 25 people all the way to 250,000 people getting hit with ransomware". [14]

Awards and philanthropy

In 2014, Kleczynski won the Silicon Valley Business Journal's 40 Under 40 award, [7] and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. [15] In 2015 he was named one of Forbes Magazine's '30 Under 30' Rising Stars of Enterprise Technology. [16]

According to Silicon Valley Business Journal, as of 2015 Kleczynski was an investor in Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit specializing in online privacy, and the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. [3]

Related Research Articles

Malware is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, deprive access to information, or which unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy. Researchers tend to classify malware into one or more sub-types.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antivirus software</span> Computer software to defend against malicious computer viruses

Antivirus software, also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ESET</span> Slovak internet security company

ESET, s.r.o., is a software company specializing in cybersecurity. ESET's security products are made in Europe and provide security software in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. Its software is localized into more than 30 languages.

Sophos Ltd. is a British-based security software and hardware company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Thoma Bravo in February 2020.

Ransomware is a type of cryptovirological malware that permanently block access to the victim's personal data unless a ransom is paid. While some simple ransomware may lock the system without damaging any files, more advanced malware uses a technique called cryptoviral extortion. It encrypts the victim's files, making them inaccessible, and demands a ransom payment to decrypt them. In a properly implemented cryptoviral extortion attack, recovering the files without the decryption key is an intractable problem, and difficult-to-trace digital currencies such as paysafecard or Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are used for the ransoms, making tracing and prosecuting the perpetrators difficult.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitdefender</span> Romanian cybersecurity technology company

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symantec Endpoint Protection</span> Computer security software

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malwarebytes (software)</span> Anti-malware software

Malwarebytes is anti-malware software for Microsoft Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, Android, and iOS that finds and removes malware. Made by Malwarebytes Corporation, it was first released in January 2006. This is available in a free version, which scans for and removes malware when started manually, and a paid version, which additionally provides scheduled scans, real-time protection and a flash-memory scanner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malwarebytes</span> Internet security company

Malwarebytes Inc. is an American Internet security company that specializes in protecting home computers, smartphones, and companies from malware and other threats. It has offices in Santa Clara, California; Clearwater, Florida; Tallinn, Estonia; Bastia Umbra, Italy; and Cork, Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaspersky Lab</span> Russian multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider

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Bleeping Computer is a website covering technology news and offering free computer help via its forums that was created by Lawrence Abrams in 2004. It publishes news focusing heavily on cybersecurity, but also covers other topics including computer software, computer hardware, operating system and general technology.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malvertising</span> Use of online advertisement or advertising to spread malware

Malvertising is the use of online advertising to spread malware. It typically involves injecting malicious or malware-laden advertisements into legitimate online advertising networks and webpages. Because advertising content can be inserted into high-profile and reputable websites, malvertising provides malefactors an opportunity to push their attacks to web users who might not otherwise see the ads, due to firewalls, more safety precautions, or the like. Malvertising is "attractive to attackers because they 'can be easily spread across a large number of legitimate websites without directly compromising those websites'."

Download Valley is a cluster of software companies in Israel, producing and delivering adware to be installed alongside downloads of other software. The primary purpose is to monetize shareware and downloads. These software items are commonly browser toolbars, adware, browser hijackers, spyware, and malware. Another group of products are download managers, possibly designed to induce or trick the user to install adware, when downloading a piece of desired software or mobile app from a certain source.

An exploit kit is a tool used for automatically managing and deploying exploits against a target computer. Exploit kits allow attackers to deliver malware without having advanced knowledge of the exploits being used. Browser exploits are typically used, although they may also include exploits targeting common software, such as Adobe Reader, or the operating system itself. Most kits are written in PHP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cybereason</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 Ukraine ransomware attacks</span> Series of powerful cyberattacks using the Petya malware

A series of powerful cyberattacks using the Petya malware began on 27 June 2017 that swamped websites of Ukrainian organizations, including banks, ministries, newspapers and electricity firms. Similar infections were reported in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. ESET estimated on 28 June 2017 that 80% of all infections were in Ukraine, with Germany second hardest hit with about 9%. On 28 June 2017, the Ukrainian government stated that the attack was halted. On 30 June 2017, the Associated Press reported experts agreed that Petya was masquerading as ransomware, while it was actually designed to cause maximum damage, with Ukraine being the main target.

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Ryuk is a type of ransomware known for targeting large, public-entity Microsoft Windows cybersystems. It typically encrypts data on an infected system, rendering the data inaccessible until a ransom is paid in untraceable bitcoin. Ryuk is believed to be used by two or more criminal groups, most likely Russian, who target organizations rather than individual consumers.

Emsisoft Ltd. is a New Zealand-based anti-virus software distributed company. They are notable for decrypting ransomware attacks to restore data.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Johnson, Steve (18 July 2014). "Q&A: Marcin Kleczynski, CEO of Malwarebytes, on cybersecurity and startups". Mercury News. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Interview with Malwarebytes' founder, Marcin Kleczynski". Techspot. 11 October 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Malwarebytes grows out of downtown San Jose as demand for virus protection soars". Silicon Valley Business Journal. 16 June 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Company Overview of Malwarebytes Corporation". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  5. ↑ Gage, Deborah. "Malwarebytes, Started by Teenager, Raises $30 Million to Battle Malware". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  6. 1 2 Lunden, Ingrid (21 January 2016). "Security Startup Malwarebytes Raises Another $50M From Fidelity". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Silicon Valley 40 Under 40: Marcin Kleczynski". Silicon Valley Business Journal. 12 December 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Malwarebytes Endpoint Security Now Protects Businesses Against Current and Future Ransomware Threats". BusinessWire. 3 August 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  9. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (21 January 2016). "Security Startup Malwarebytes Raises Another $50M From Fidelity". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
  10. ↑ "Malwarebytes Quietly Becomes a Big Player in Anti-Malware Software". The New York Times. 18 July 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  11. ↑ "Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Android". TechSpot. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  12. ↑ "Review Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit Free: Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit Free". PCMag UK. 17 December 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "Ransomware threat on the rise as 'almost 40% of businesses attacked'". The Guardian. 3 August 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  14. ↑ Cook, James (11 August 2016). "Banks are stockpiling bitcoins in case they get hit with ransomware". Business Insider. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  15. ↑ "Young Entrepreneur of the Week: Marcin Kleczynski of Malwarebytes, Downloaded Over 200m Times". Huffington Post. 12 February 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  16. ↑ Upbin, Bruce. "Marcin Kleczynski, 25 - In Photos: 2015 30 Under 30: Enterprise Technology". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 6, 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
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