Kaspersky Lab confirms it is working on an operating system

SECURITY VENDOR Kaspersky Lab has confirmed that it is working on developing an industrial control system (ICS), claiming it can create one that is more secure than Apple, Microsoft or distributions from the open source community.

Rumours have been flying that Kaspersky Lab has been working on an operating system and Eugene Kaspersky confirmed that the firm has been working on a ICS operating system that he claims will be more secure than efforts by Apple, Microsoft and the open source community. According to Kaspersky, the firm's efforts will be "highly tailored" rather than a general purpose operating system and will not allow background activity by processes.

Kaspersky gave two reasons why his firm's efforts will be better than others, saying, "First: our system is highly tailored, developed for solving a specific narrow task, and not intended for playing Half-Life on, editing your vacation videos, or blathering on social media. Second: we're working on methods of writing software which by design won't be able to carry out any behind-the-scenes, undeclared activity. This is the important bit: the impossibility of executing third-party code, or of breaking into the system or running unauthorized applications on our OS; and this is both provable and testable."

Kaspersky also stated the bleeding obvious when he said that existing security measures are ineffective against contemporary threats. However, given that his firm, among many other security vendors, has been happily peddling what is clearly ineffective software, it is quite a stretch to think that a Kaspersky Lab developed operating system will be any better. The firm is also taking a risk with its reputation by creating an operating system that many security researchers will see as a bullseye target at a high profile security vendor.

Kaspersky did not say when his firm expects to roll out its operating system. µ