Ivan Kaspersky, the 20-year-old son of computer guru Yevgeny Kaspersky, was kidnapped, with the criminals demanding a ransom of 3 million euros ($4.3 million), Lifenews.ru said Thursday, without citing any sources.
Law enforcement agencies issued no official statement on the matter, and the elder Kaspersky refused to confirm or deny the report, Interfax said. His company, leading anti-virus software maker Kaspersky Lab, said Thursday that it was looking into the story.
Ivan Kaspersky was kidnapped early Tuesday when walking through a factory area in Moscow’s northwest on the way from home to work, Lifenews.ru said.
The younger Kaspersky works at the Moscow-based software firm InfoWatch, owned by his mother Natalya, Kaspersky Lab’s co-founder. He is also a student at the computational mathematics and cybernetics department of Moscow State University.
The alleged criminals could have obtained information on Ivan Kaspersky’s residence from his page on social network Vkontakte.ru, where he wrote the full address of the apartment he had lived in since 1991, Marker.ru said.
Privacy settings on the page were changed Thursday, with access to the information closed to unauthorized users.
Lifenews.ru said Ivan Kaspersky actually moved to a new apartment a month before the kidnapping. It remained unclear whether he provided the new address on his Vkontakte page.
An unidentified law enforcement agency source confirmed to Interfax on Thursday that police and the secret services are looking for Ivan Kaspersky, but did not elaborate.
Forbes Russia estimated the wealth of Yevgeny Kaspersky earlier this month at $800 million.