Russia firm unveils 'surveillance-proof' smartphone

[piemadd]

Quote

For Russians who fear that someone may be eavesdropping on their phone conversations, leading IT entrepreneur Natalya Kaspersky says she has a solution. 

At a business forum in Moscow on Friday she presented "TaigaPhone", a brand new smartphone created by InfoWatch Group, her software development company, costing around 15,000 rubles ($260).

The TaigaPhone is entirely green to represent the Russian northern forest after which it is named and has a five-inch touch screen.

This is my perfect phone. Also, does it look like the s8 to you?

Quote

"We have created it for the corporate market," said Kaspersky, president of InfoWatch Group and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, Russia's leading antivirus software development company which some believe may have links to Russian intelligence.

Kaspersky Lab has over the past months been at the centre of controversy in the United States.

In July, the US government removed Kaspersky from its list of approved vendors, weeks after top US intelligence agency and law enforcement officials expressed concerns about the safety of its software.

But no evidence has been presented to back up vague assertions that it might be a tool of Moscow, offering Russian spies back-door entry into computers worldwide.

The company has repeatedly denied working with any government agency.

The TaigaPhone is not the first Russian-made smartphone. YotaPhone, which first appeared on the market in 2013, is back this year with a new device: the YotaPhone 3.

InfoWatch wants to sell TaigaPhone to Russian companies at a cost of between 12,000 and 15,000 rubles, almost five times cheaper than the cost of an iPhone in Russia.

"Half of all data loss in Russia happens on mobile devices, we intend to fix that problem with the TaigaPhone," company representative Grigoriy Vasilyev told investors at the forum.

InfoWatch says the device can guarantee the confidentiality of all TaigaPhone users, track the location of each device and prevent information leakage.

I wonder why the US removed them? (NSA?) Yeah I actually might buy this phone, some way, somehow.

 

Source: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/russia-firm-unveils-surveillance-proof-smartphone/ar-AAspdqN

[AresKrieger]

I don't trust Kaspersky as I've seen how poor their software functions so I doubt these claims of surveillance-proof very much so, as for the NSA's claims and what not I have no reason to trust them either

 

But if it actually was a phone designed to evade surveillance I doubt the russian government would allow it to be  publicly unveiled in their country.

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

the us removes stuff like that because the government wants to know everything u do, including ur phone sex calls and taking a dump if they could know

[piemadd]

21 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

They can track the location of each device? Why would I want a central system tracking my location if I wanted to be rid of surveillance? 

idk

 

well what about having to find your phone?

[Sauron]

I don't see any explanation of why this is supposed to be "surveillance proof". The only surveillance proof device is a brick.

[LtStaffel]

Just now, Sauron said:

I don't see any explanation of why this is supposed to be "surveillance proof". The only surveillance proof device is a brick.

They didn't say why it is more surveillance proof. However, by forcing encryption, building WiFi tools to check for sniffers, making a mobile port for Whonix, and etc, it may be possible to design a somewhat more secure phone.

[Sauron]

5 minutes ago, LtStaffel said:

They didn't say why it is more surveillance proof. However, by forcing encryption, building WiFi tools to check for sniffers, making a mobile port for Whonix, and etc, it may be possible to design a somewhat more secure phone.

Well yes, but there's a big gap between "somewhat more secure" and "surveillance proof". Maybe we should classify it as "surveillance resistant"?

[LtStaffel]

Just now, Sauron said:

Well yes, but there's a big gap between "somewhat more secure" and "surveillance proof". Maybe we should classify it as "surveillance resistant"?

Yep

[vanished]

10 minutes ago, Sauron said:

I don't see any explanation of why this is supposed to be "surveillance proof". The only surveillance proof device is a brick.

idk, with the right equipment they may be able to detect micro-vibrations in the brick from a distance allowing them to eavesdrop  

[Guest]

Just trying to find the source behind the article is just showing me dozens of copies of the same article. Journalism at its finest. Hard to tell if its the typical journalist making false claims or if its the company that is doing it. Anyone else have better luck?

[weed]

Just now, tjcater said:

Just trying to find the source behind the article is just showing me dozens of copies of the same article. Journalism at its finest. Hard to tell if its the typical journalist making false claims or if its the company that is doing it. Anyone else have better luck?

Its probably just a fake article to keep the news and as a great man once said ( @Sauron ) "the only surveillance proof thing is a brick"

[Linus_torvalds]

I do not trust russians and that company kaspersky.

Also i do not trust any device which is surveillance proof/resistand and runs android LOL.

They must have made a smartphone with sailfish OS. That's much more secure and open OS then android and without all that google stuff in it...

Everything that has a relaition with google is used to track you!

[Guest]

Just now, mate_mate91 said:

more secure and open OS then android and without all that google stuff in it...

Everything that has a relaition with google is used to track you!

Can't say much on security however android is open source and doesn't include google components when using plain ole AOSP (What all android roms are based, just like chromium is the open source version of chrome before google stacks all its stuff on it).

[samcool55]

Well, this is basically claiming whatever is hack-proof. It's not. It's a lie and we all know that.

So, inb4 someone hacked it and talks about it during the next black hat or defcon...

[Nicnac]

I hope it has a feature that delivers lurid RT headlines to the lockscreen.

Oh, and also: _{Brought to you by the KGB}

[Jito463]

2 hours ago, Implosivetech said:

Russia firm unveils 'surveillance-proof' smartphone

2 hours ago, Implosivetech said:

InfoWatch says the device can ....... track the location of each device

I sense a discrepancy in there somewhere.  I can't quite put my finger on what that is, though.  Hmm....I'm sure it will come to me eventually.

 

[captain_to_fire]

Ever heard of the Blackphone by Silent Circle? https://www.silentcircle.com/products-and-solutions/devices/

[PlayStation 2]

A smartphone from Russia.

Yeah, no. I can already see this going very wrong.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Ever heard of the Blackphone by Silent Circle? https://www.silentcircle.com/products-and-solutions/devices/

Reminded me that I could flash Copperhead OS to my Nexus, just I don't value my privacy enough to use it.

[captain_to_fire]

9 minutes ago, tjcater said:

Reminded me that I could flash Copperhead OS to my Nexus, just I don't value my privacy enough to use it.

Or install a Tails or Qubes OS on a VM

[Dabombinable]

9 hours ago, AresKrieger said:

I don't trust Kaspersky as I've seen how poor their software functions so I doubt these claims of surveillance-proof very much so, as for the NSA's claims and what not I have no reason to trust them either

 

But if it actually was a phone designed to evade surveillance I doubt the russian government would allow it to be  publicly unveiled in their country.

I still don't understand why some people have issues with it. It runs just fine with a Pentium T3200+4GB RAM+750GB 5400RPM HDD.

[piemadd]

9 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

I still don't understand why some people have issues with it. It runs just fine with a Pentium T3200+4GB RAM+750GB 5400RPM HDD.

Issues with what?

[Jito463]

2 hours ago, Implosivetech said:

Issues with what?

I presume he was referring to Kaspersky AV, despite it only having a tangential relationship to the referenced article above.

[piemadd]

20 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

I presume he was referring to Kaspersky AV, despite it only having a tangential relationship to the referenced article above.

thanks

[AresKrieger]

15 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

I still don't understand why some people have issues with it. It runs just fine with a Pentium T3200+4GB RAM+750GB 5400RPM HDD.

It seems to do very little in terms of protection, I've never seen it detect anything threatening despite things getting pass it frequently all it does is eat ram on crappy work computers