Kaspersky Lab has obtained a Russian patent for a training system that is based on an assessment of each individual user’s knowledge
Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, has obtained a Russian patent for a training system that is based on an assessment of each individual user’s knowledge.
For many years, Kaspersky Lab has devoted a lot of effort to educating users about IT security. The vast experience gained in that time shows that users tend to come from different backgrounds and their knowledge of computers varies dramatically, which means that a common approach to training is impractical. Training is most effective when tailored to the specific level of expertise of each user group.
These days, training poses major problems in more areas than just data security: the ever-growing sum of human knowledge and expertise becomes increasingly difficult to structure and interpret. Consequently, the comprehension gap between experts and early-stage learners keeps widening. This becomes very apparent in situations where experts explain technical issues to users who cannot grasp their full meaning due to the unavoidable use of terminology.
The innovation described in patent no. 2415462 is authored by Stanislav Shevchenko, a leading Kaspersky Lab expert, and is based on interactively generating answers to questions using readily available information in the domain-specific knowledge base. Users can specify their level or knowledge, or the system can deduce it, allowing explanations to be provided to users in terms that they will be able to understand. This approach is innovative in that the system automatically uses a knowledge base of a higher level in order to generate an answer when no suitable information is available at the required level. At the physical level, the system is implemented using touch-screen tablet computers and voice commands which connect wirelessly to the server hosting the answer-generation logic and technical knowledge base.
“Training and education has recently attracted increasing attention both globally and in Russia,” says Stanislav Shevchenko, Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Head of Education at Kaspersky Lab. “This new training patent demonstrates Kaspersky Lab also has a strategic grasp in the area of training initiatives.”
Currently, over one hundred applications filed by Kaspersky Lab are being processed by the patent authorities in the USA, Russia, China and Europe. These pending patents all cover innovative new IT security technologies.
