Ilya Sachkov

Ilya Konstantinovich Sachkov
Ilya Sachkov
Born	(1986-06-13) June 13, 1986 Moscow
Alma mater	Bauman Technical University
Known for	Founder of Group-IB
Website	www.group-ib.com/leadership.html

Ilya Konstantinovich Sachkov (Russian: Илья Константинович Сачков) is a Russian IT entrepreneur, head of IT security company Group-IB, known for its Threat Intelligence, considered one of the most efficient in the world,^[1][2] and profound expertise in Russian hacking underground community.

He is a member of cybercrime expert committees in the Council of Europe and the OSCE. Also he is a co-chairman of the Cybercrime Committee at the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC) and the Coordination Center for TLD RU. In 2016, he received the "30 under 30" award in "Enterprise Tech" category of Forbes magazine^[3] and has been featured in similar Russian ratings.

Biography

Ilya was born in Moscow in 1986. He was raised in Izmailovo District in Eastern Moscow. His father is a physicist and mother an information analyst at the Central Bank of Russia.

As a teenager, he read Chris Prosise's and Kevin Mandia's book titled "Incident Response: Investigating Computer Crime" which lead him to the foundation of Group-IB company.

In 2003, Ilya Sachkov, then a first-year student at the Bauman Technical University founded Group-IB along with three classmates and received the company's first contracts in investigation and expert examination. Sachkov graduated from Bauman Moscow State Technical University in Information Security, Informatics and Control Systems in 2009. Currently his professional interests include development of cyber-crime investigations, cybersecurity products and solutions, protecting customers against fraud and APTs (Advanced Persistent Threats), as well as international cooperation against hacking activities.

Participation in non-profit organizations

Ilya Sachkov is a member of the following associations:

• The Council of Europe and OSCE Expert Councils^[4]
• The International Information Systems Forensics Association (IISFA)
• The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)
• The Honeynet Project
• Russian Information Systems Security Professional Association (RISSPA)
• Entrepreneurial Business Security Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation
• Co-chair of Cybercrime Committee at the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC)
• Member of Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace^[5]

Business history

In 2003, Ilya's older brother gave him $5000 to start Group-IB and Bauman Technical University provided a room which served as the company's first forensic lab. Co-founders Dmitry Volkov (head of Investigation Department and Intelligence service) and Igor Katkov (CTO) joined him at that time.

In 2010, Group-IB was contracted to investigate the breach of one of the websites of Leta Group, a management company representing Slovak antivirus company ESET in Russia. Investigation of this incident became the first major project for Group-IB. In autumn 2010, Alexander Chachava and his classmate Sergey Piltsov (Leta Group) became 50% owners of Group-IB. Chachava and Piltsov each took a 25% share in the company, 20% was owned by Ilya Sachkov, while 10% went to each of the three other founding employees. Group-IB revenues reached $3 million in 2010.^[6] The investment from Leta Group enabled Group-IB to increase its personnel fivefold to 70 people and purchase equipment. In 2013, Group-IB's management bought out Leta Group's share.

Since 2012, Group-IВ has developed an early warning system for proactive cyber defence based on the company's own threat intelligence and incident response methodic. In 2014 Group-IB became the first Russian threat intelligence vendor included in Gartner's reports.^[7] Group-IB's product line also includes TDS (Threat Detection System) and APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) detection network appliance,^[8] as well as Secure Bank a SAAS anti-fraud solution,^[9] currently protecting over 50 million Sberbank clients online.

In August 2016, Group-IB received another funding round from Altera Investment Fund SICAV-SIF, a Luxembourg-based investment company, and the Russian fund, Run Capital, whose shareholders are the founders of the Qiwi payment system: Andrey Muraviev, Nikolay Romanenko and Andrey Romanenko. The investors each acquired a 10 percent stake in Group-IB for an undisclosed fee.

In 2017, IDC Russia named Group-IB as the leading Russian Threat Intelligence Security Service^[1] while Forrester Research included the company in its Cyber Threat Intelligence Vendor landscape report.^[10]

Awards and acknowledgments

In 2015, Ilya received the EY's Entrepreneur of the Year National Award in the "Telecommunications" category and Special "Business Internet Choice" Prize.

In 2016 he was ranked among the most notable young entrepreneurs under 30 according to Forbes magazine ("30 under 30" rating) and among the most successful young Russian businessmen.^[3] He also received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year National Award – this time in the "IT for business" category.^[11]

Since 2017, he is an Associate Professor at the Department of Information Security of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University.

Personal life and hobbies

Ilya participates in various sports competitions: e. g. running and martial arts. In February 2017 he appeared on Russian GQ magazine's list of 50 best dressed men of the year.^[12] He is divorced.

References