The tycoon whose Positive Technologies was recently hit with U.S. sanctions insists he just wants to help protect all companies from hackers. U.S. security officials don’t buy it. he city was under siege. Hackers had knocked out its electricity and oil production, caused an explosion at a gas station and dropped a shipping container on a barge at the port. The carnage was contained, though, occuring in a model city, an ersatz modern metropolis in miniature.
Maksimov flatly denies the Treasury Department and Atlantic Council allegations. Speaking from Positive’s Moscow office, dressed in striped t-shirt and jeans, he asserts that his business has been embroiled in a geopolitical war: “We have never participated in any attacks directed at companies or states.”
Yury Maksimov cofounded Positive Technologies with his brother Dmitry and old friend Evgeny Kireev. Maksimov, who stepped down as CEO, remains the biggest shareholder while the others serve as company advisors.
in April that it was compliant with all sanctions. “We continue to adhere to US law,” a Microsoft spokesperson toldthat it too was complying with the sanctions, saying its work with Positive was limited to product integration. Given the sanctions it is no longer cooperating with Positive on those integrations, adding: “Positive Technologies was provided standard information so its vulnerability scanning product could communicate with the IBM QRadar security tool.
Maksimov thinks he can do as much good outside the company. He stepped down down last month, replaced by former managing director Denis Baranov, saying he wanted to focus less on day-to-day operations. He remains board chairman and majority shareholder. “I have different interests now. I want the world to become more secure and I want to stop being disjointed.”