Russian antivirus vendor, Kaspersky Labs, has announced their intent to develop a secure operating system for industrial control systems (ICS), which have been recent targets of hackers and nation-state sponsored cyberattacks. They note that recent attacks against hardware control systems for critical utilities infrastructure and industrial equipment has increased during the past decade and as such, they feel the need to roll their own OS for the good of the public. They indicated that they are developing the OS with cooperation from ICS operators and vendors (they claim no support from the Russian government). Kaspersky stressed the fact that the new operating system is specifically geared towards industrial control systems and not personal computers nor mobile devices. It will be a simple, pared down OS stripped of all but critical functionality.

Geek Slop’s take? Will any country (US included) trust a “secure” operating system developed by a Russian company, even one with the clout of Kaspersky Lab? Kaspersky claims that they have received no sponsorship from the Russian government but will the public really believe that claim?

We expect curious hackers to target Kaspersky Labs and a leak of the highly secret OS to the public slowing or stopping the project in its tracks.