Children of Kremlin officials will receive an iPhone

The Kremlin is urgently getting rid of the iPhone. Until the end of March, all employees of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation are required to give up their gadgets, for this they were given a month’s deadline.

The security requirement involves replacing the iPhone with smartphones of other brands and with a different operating system, explains Russian edition Kommersant, citing information from its sources:

“The iPhone is everything. Either throw it away or give it to the children. Everyone will have to do this in March.”

The demand was brought to the attention of officials at a seminar for employees of the internal political bloc of the Putin administration, which took place in early March in the Moscow region. Such actions are related to security considerations – the presidential administration believes that these gadgets are more susceptible to hacking and espionage by Western experts compared to other smartphones.

The source of the publication admits that perhaps the Kremlin will even buy new “safe” phones for its employees to make it easier for them to abandon American technology. In the meantime, Putin’s administration officials have been advised to purchase phones with Android operating systems, its Chinese counterparts, or Aurora. The latter is the successful development of the Russian company Open Mobile Platform, a subsidiary of PJSC Rostelecom.

“Kommersant” claims that officials of regional domestic political blocs will soon receive recommendations to get rid of the iPhone. The publication notes that the conditional internal political block of the Presidential Administration includes four departments: for domestic policy, for public projects, for ensuring the activities of the State Council, for the development of information and communication technologies and communications infrastructure. The first three will deal with the 2024 Russian presidential election campaign, preparations for which have already begun in early 2023.

Since the end of last year, the publication also reports, the Russian government has been discussing with market participants the prospects for building a sovereign mobile ecosystem in the country, which will be based on technologies independent of Western IT giants. OS “Aurora” was developed in this logic. At the moment, the sale of mobile devices on this OS is carried out only to corporate and government customers.

This is not the first time that federal authorities have advised Russian officials about their electronic communications. In the summer of 2022, they were advised to stop using Zoom in favor of the domestic Trueconf.

There is never too much security, and smartphones can really create the prerequisites for retrieving information, and iPhones are not exclusive to these threats, says political scientist Vladimir Shemyakin. But it is important to strike a balance between security and performance. Employees of the Presidential Administration for official tasks need good access to the Internet, various instant messengers, and social networks. And the more secure the phone, the more often it is limited in functionality, the expert reminds:

“The main thing is that it doesn’t work out, as with super-complex passwords that are impossible not only to crack, but also to remember, so you have to stick a cheat sheet on the back of the keyboard.”

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