For Russians who fear that someone might be eavesdropping on their telephone conversations, leading IT entrepreneur Natalya Kaspersky says she has a solution.
At a business forum on Friday in Moscow, she presented the “TaigaPhone,” a smartphone created by InfoWatch Group, her software development company, costing about 15,000 rubles (US$261).
The TaigaPhone is entirely green to represent the Russian northern forest after which it is named and has a 5-inch touch screen.
“We have created it for the corporate market,” said Kaspersky, president of InfoWatch Group and cofounder of Kaspersky Lab, Russia’s leading antivirus software development company that some believe might have links to Russian intelligence.
In July, the US government removed Kaspersky Lab from its list of approved vendors, weeks after top US intelligence agency and law enforcement officials expressed concerns about the safety of its software.
The company has repeatedly denied working with any Russian 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 the YotaPhone 3.
InfoWatch wants to sell TaigaPhone to Russian companies for 12,000 rubles to 15,000 rubles, nearly 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.
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