Kaspersky Lab smartphone

2024

Customers received the company's first smartphones. They do not have a camera, but there is Telegram

On September 30, 2024, it became known that Kaspersky Lab clients received the first smartphones under the control of a proprietary micronucleus. The operating system KasperskyOS devices do not have a built-in camera, but there is a messenger Telegram and a mail client.

The KasperskyOS platform, as emphasized, is developed from scratch and does not use Linux code. The OS is focused on creating hardware and software systems that are protected from any, even from still unknown threats. Moreover, KasperskyOS does not require antiviruses: thanks to the principles inherent in the OS architecture, it is possible to create solutions based on it that have cyber immunity - built-in protection against the vast majority of types of cyber attacks.

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It is known that Kaspersky Lab smartphones were developed in partnership with Aquarius. This company is responsible for the entire technical part, while Kaspersky Lab deals with software components. The full characteristics of the device as of the end of September 2024 were not disclosed. But it is noted that the device is endowed with an NFC chip.

While his [smartphone] is being actively worked out. We have implemented Telegram, mail, working with documents - a full-fledged office suite, - Anton Ivanov, director of research and development at Kaspersky Lab, told RIA Novosti.

Kaspersky Lab is not going to produce full-fledged smartphones by analogy with Apple - it intends to provide OS to other companies. These can be Russian and Asian suppliers whose devices meet certain requirements. The app store for new smartphones will receive its own set of available programs. It will be possible to use the devices, among other things, as part of the critical infrastructure.^[1]

Demonstration of the Russian smartphone with the KasperskyOS operating system

On April 15, 2024, the founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, Evgeny Kaspersky, introduced a smartphone with the KasperskyOS operating system. The device was developed by Aquarius.

All software, operating system, starting from loading, when you turn on, then - all ours. Therefore, who is interested, contact, show, tell, teach. Once again, this is not only about phones, it is about all different pieces of iron in order to make them hyper-repaired, "Kaspersky said.

The press service of Kaspersky Lab explained to TASS that the OS was first shown on a domestic smartphone, previously the process was demonstrated on devices manufactured in Asia. The company explained that we are talking about one of the research samples of the smartphone.

Kaspersky Lab added that KasperskyOS is intended primarily for devices in the corporate and industrial sectors. There are no plans to install the platform on personal computers.

TASS notes that the operating system is not a "clone" of any other system. The microkernel of the OS platform is written entirely from scratch and does not use Linux kernel code. The platform is focused on creating hardware and software systems that are protected from any threats, including those still unknown. KasperskyOS does not require antiviruses.

Earlier, the head of the business development group in the KasperskyOS division, Viktor Ivanovsky, told Vedomosti that Kaspersky Lab had stopped participating in a project to create a secure smartphone for the military, which it was engaged in together with Aquarius. It was about the Aquarius NS M11 smartphone, which was positioned as a device focused mainly on the military and special services and was presented in December 2021.

2023: New details about the smartphone

In June 2023, Kaspersky Lab revealed new details regarding the company's own smartphone. According to Viktor Ivanovsky, head of the KasperskyOS business development group, the device already has basic applications, including calls, SMS, address book and configuration panel.

Next in line is the implementation of Wi-Fi, NFC and camera support. These components, as Ivanovsky noted in a conversation with RIA Novosti, are primarily necessary for some "industrial scenarios."

The device already has basic applications, including calls, SMS, address book and configuration panel

Also, a representative of Kaspersky Lab said that by June 2023 the company is working on supporting a Chromium-based browser (open source browser), this is necessary so as not to "load developers with a new browser platform." He clarified that Kaspersky Lab is working exclusively on an operating system for a professional mobile device. The company is negotiating with potential partners to start selling smartphones. We are talking about the Russian and Asian markets.

Earlier in June 2023, TASS, citing Anton Ivanov, director of research and development at Kaspersky Lab, said that the company was preparing for the emergence of its mobile platform KasperskyOS on smartphones designed for the international market and was negotiating with manufacturers of mobile devices from Asian countries. In parallel, work is underway to prepare Kaspersky OS for release in Russia - negotiations are underway with Russian smartphone manufacturers. According to the news agency, mobile phones for the Russian and foreign markets will be completely different, but a final decision on this issue has not been made by June 2023. By this time, according to Anton Ivanov, Kaspersky Lab has only a prototype of the device in its hands.

For Russia, a smartphone on KasperskyOS can be one, and probably another - for the international market, "he told TASS.[2]

2022: Problems in the development of an ultra-secure smartphone

In mid-August 2022, the founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, Yevgeny Kaspersky, spoke about the problems that the company faced when developing its own secure smartphone.

We wrote everything from the very beginning, so we still need to finish. The camera doesn't work. We do, but it takes time. Plus performance - there is still work there to make it work at the same speed that we are used to. There are a lot of technical problems that we are slowly coping with, "Kaspersky said in a conversation with RIA Novosti.

Kaspersky Lab faces problems developing a smartphone

According to him, the device will be a cross between a smartphone and a push-button phone. It is noted that the device will allow you to work with critical infrastructure, but its functions will be limited.

There will be no App Store, there will be no chips that everyone loves on smartphones, but it will be a thing that can be safely controlled by a conditional turbine, "added the head of Kaspersky Lab.

He noted that the phone will be "guaranteed unbreakable," since modern realities require the ability to remotely manage the infrastructure. The device is not considered as a replacement for a regular smartphone, Yevgeny Kaspersky emphasized. At the same time, he found it difficult to name the timing of the demonstration of the devices.

When we show it and say that here, ready - I don't know, - said Evgeny Kaspersky.

In early July 2022, he said that Kaspersky Lab plans to release its own operating system for computers and smartphones. The platform will also be available to ordinary users. The existing KasperskyOS is used in areas with increased cybersecurity requirements.^[3]

2021: Kaspersky: A distinctive feature of a smartphone is a high degree of protection

At the end of June 2021, the founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, Yevgeny Kaspersky, told some details about the smartphone that the company is developing. According to the entrepreneur, the device will differ in a high degree of protection against hacking.

The main feature of this phone is not that it is convenient, good. And the fact is that it is impossible to hack it. We guarantee that there is a malware there - an almost unrealistic scenario, "Kaspersky said in an interview with Forbes magazine.

Evgeny Kaspersky told details about the company's smartphone

He noted that it would be "not just a smartphone, but" more a communicator, "capable of receiving e-mail and accessing the Internet. With the help of the gadget, you will not be able to listen to music and watch videos.

The head of Kaspersky Lab suggested that the development will be useful for those who need to solve problems that require a secure phone. Among potential users, the businessman called "large factories, transport and other enterprises - mainly the public sector of Russia."

According to Kaspersky, the smartphone software will be fully developed by Kaspersky Lab, and the device itself will be assembled by the company's project in China.

Earlier in June 2021, Yevgeny Kaspersky, in a conversation with Kommersant, said that New Cloud Technologies will make office software for smartphones based on KasperskyOS. The release of the smartphone is planned in the fall of 2021.

In an interview with Forbes, Yevgeny Kaspersky said that by early June the company was negotiating with several companies, and in the fall it was planned to release "a series of similar phones, immune phones." The entrepreneur did not name the estimated cost of the product:

Priceless, there are no analogues. The OS has a fundamentally new architecture, for the reason that its main principle is security. Not just security, but immunity. A face mask is about safety. And vaccination is immunity. Our OS is vaccinated, - the billionaire gave a comparison.[4][5]

2020: Kaspersky told details about the company's smartphone

In December 2020, Kaspersky Lab"" announced the development of its own. Its smartphone software basis will be created by the company. operating system KasperskyOS

There will be minimal functionality, do not expect beauty from Android and iOS, this smartphone will perform other special tasks, "Evgeny Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, told RIA Novosti.

Kaspersky Lab has developed its own smartphone with a secure OS

Among the capabilities of the device, Kaspersky listed calls, SMS messaging, a set of office programs, a browser "with minimal functionality" and a standard set of applications like an alarm clock and a calculator.

So far, Kaspersky Lab does not plan to have an application store on its OS, but in the future this is not excluded.

Most likely, first we will do our own, and then we will be ready to attract other application stores, "said Evgeny Kaspersky.

According to Yevgeny Kaspersky, an agreement with one of the Chinese device manufacturers to install KasperskyOS on smartphones has already been reached, and smartphones may appear on sale in 2021. At the same time, Kaspersky Lab does not plan to compete with Apple or Google, the creators of the most popular mobile operating systems.

Our task is to create a secure phone, which is almost impossible to "hack," for processing secret and confidential information of both civil servants, enterprises, and infrastructure management, he said.

The manufacturer will be a certain Chinese company, whose name has not yet been disclosed. As Kaspersky notes, now there are two or three dozen "pilots" both in Russia and abroad - Europe, Asia, the CIS countries. According to him, the OS can be universal and the company is going to focus on where "the market will drag."^[6] 

2019: First information on a secure smartphone

On December 10, 2019, it became known about Kaspersky Lab's intention to release its own secure smartphone. It will be based on the KasperskyOS platform .

As Kommersant writes with reference to Grigory Sizov, head of KasperskyOS business development, by December 2019 the company is developing the concept, studying business models and discussing the possibility of cooperation with manufacturers of chipsets and devices.

Kaspersky Lab is working on creating its own secure smartphone

According to Sizov, the company plans to install KasperskyOS on gadgets for the corporate sector, because there is practically no demand for secure smartphones among ordinary users.

The basic principle of cyber immunity is that the cost of an attack on a device where the system stands should be greater than the damage caused. You can hack everything, but we must make it unprofitable, "he said.

Previously, Russia has already tried to create a secure smartphone. Natalia Kasperskaya's Infowatch group was developing a project called "TaigaPhone," but was forced to curtail development due to weak technical characteristics, lack of software and the need for large-scale investment in promotion.

Grigory Sizov said that smartphone Kaspersky Lab will fundamentally differ from TaigaPhone - primarily by using its own, operating system which the company created from scratch. The Infowatch device worked on "another reincarnation," Android Linux he said.

Dmitry Parshin, director of the Artezio development center, believes that a secure smartphone for business will remain reliable until it becomes popular, since such a product is "a challenge for the technical community and criminal structures."

Pavel Vyukov, director of Marvel Distribution's Mobile Communications Department, called Kaspersky Lab's advantage over competitors a higher level of trust in products.^[7]

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