Kaspersky Developing Cyber Secure Operating System

Kaspersky Lab is developing a secure operating system platform. The target market: Utilities, nuclear reactors, financial systems, and other companies that need to defend their IT systems from so-called cyber warfare and cyber terrorism attacks. Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky briefly described the secure operating system project during a keynote this morning at the Kaspersky Lab 2012 North American Partner Conference.

Kaspersky described a worse-case IT scenario where some countries or individuals launch cyber war attacks against other countries. The cyber warfare weapons will be much less expensive and far more efficient to develop than traditional weapons. The reason: Software can replicate and spread instantly across the Internet, while physical weapons require careful manufacturing over and over again.

Kaspersky suggested that multiple power plants and electric grids could go dark during cyber wars, even if the attacker was only targeting one power plant. The reason: Many industrial systems use the same software code base, and therefore those industrial systems will suffer collateral damage.

Kaspersky Lab R&D

To mitigate such risks, Kaspersky said industrial systems need to be protected by a redesigned, fully secure operating system foundation. Kaspersky said his company is working on such an operating system. However, he did not disclose details about projected availability.

Some key questions and thoughts from The VAR Guy:

• Is Kaspersky Lab looking to get into the “traditional” operating system market, where familiar names like Windows, Mac OS, Android and iOS dominate the desktop and mobile markets? The VAR Guy doubts it.
• Instead, The VAR Guy wonders if Kaspersky Lab is working on some sort of software layer that integrates with Unix, Linux and Windows Server. Or perhaps Kaspersky Lab’s relationship with VMware comes into play here.

Frankly, The VAR Guy doesn’t have many answers right now. But two things are clear: Kaspersky Lab’s core focus will remain security. And Eugene Kaspersky’s mind is thinking years ahead. Sure, he focuses on the traditional anti-virtus market. But the biggest long-term threat to IT security involves cyber warfare and cyber terrorism. And Kaspersky seems to be hinting that a cyber secure operating system from Kaspersky Lab will someday mitigate such risks…