Submitted by Kaspersky has launched a brand new operating system, built from the ground up for use on routers and other hardware. Very little information is available in English right now, but The Register has a brief summary of what’s been released about it in Russian.
Only over endorsed Hardware? ROM firmware?
Kaspersky Labs are founded for former KGB guy. Oh, wait, there is not such thing as former KGB guys- they can be only dead. Basically Putin does not trust Chinese (Huawei) and US (Cisco) routers backdoors anymore because everyone knows them nowadays… Only way to spy on own fellow citizens is to implant own, FSB/GRU controlled firmware. Ban Kaspersky antivirus solutions and your systems will be much safer- no DDoS attacks from your computer to your local government anymore, etc…
As though a US or Chinese firmware is free of such risks from their respective countries.
And as though Symantec and friends aren’t already in the NSA’s back pocket anyway. Remember how Symantec discovered stuxnet but didn’t say or do anything about it because it looked like a US government job?
Governments are usually only concerned with industrial espionage and the political activities of their own citizens. The Russians and Chinese [and NSA] don’t care what porn sites people are looking at.
Edited 2016-08-27 07:03 UTC
Yes, however there is still the possibility that he was never really KGB to begin with. Offence is always easier than defense. The green chicken eats only grey spiders.
Edited 2016-08-29 17:30 UTC
“The core must be 100 percent verified as not permitting vulnerabilities or dual-purpose code”
That depends a lot on who is doing the verification.
I guess they mean formally verified (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_verification), which would be an incredible achievement.
So I guess they really mean *almost* formally verified, which doesn’t mean much.
https://sel4.systems/
There is what is called Mathematically Verified Software Kernels.
There are prototype sel4 routers out there.
https://ts.data61.csiro.au/projects/TS/
In fact if you are interested in secure OS design this from Csiro Australia is quite detailed in methods and processes to achieve it. Including having to verify the complier.
This OS is designed to prevent cyber attacks against critical Russian infrastructure. I assume it is ROM-based and will never be available for public release.
It absolutely has nothing to with do privacy or security for normal users.
I do not know much about security software and am unfortunately not in a position to judge the quality of Kaspersky AV tools, but this bragging of Eugene Kaspersky in interviews seems strange. Can never make much sense of what he says.
As far media has shown, being on the IT Security|Privacy require a certain pyscho-load. Just remembering the former owner of McAffee. Nothing is taken for granted.
It’s an always-testing engineering.