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On Monday, Izvestia reported that Russian lawmakers would consider requiring Russian government officials to ditch foreign-made smartphones like the iPhone and use the Russian-made Yotaphone instead, due to concerns about the lack of security of foreign-made communication gadgets. Izvestia stated that a Federation Council commission would analyse how vulnerable some contemporary communication devices are, which may lead to proposals that officials get rid of mobiles manufactured abroad as they’re anxious over potential government security breaches from the use of smartphones. Lawmakers interviewed by Izvestia raised questions about foreign-made telephones’ security, implying that outsiders could more easily hack them or spy on them than they could a Russian-made device. RF Gosduma Deputy Vadim Dengin told Izvestia, “There’d always be distrust towards smartphone manufacturers. Whoever makes the technology can also eavesdrop on it. I’d easily give up [my] smartphone in favour of a domestic smartphone designed specifically for us and by us. In this regard, I have high hopes for Yotaphone”.
Last week, the mobile broadband services provider Yota launched the twin-screened Yotaphone, which features a full-colour LCD screen on one side and a black-and-white electronic paper display on the other. Already, Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, a well-known Apple fan, has begun using the Yotaphone, the country’s first domestically-produced smartphone. Last week, he told reporters that he hoped it’d have better protection from spying than the iPhone. Recently, technology security came to the forefront of global government attention amidst media revelations that American security agencies monitored the telephone conversations of dozens of world leaders, leading to distrust by some Russian officials of American technology. Besides that, US President Barack Obama said that he couldn’t use an iPhone for security reasons. In September, Vitaly Milonov, a member of the St Petersburg Legislative Assembly, warned Russian officials against using Apple’s new iPhone 5, saying that the device’s fingerprint-recognition security measure could store the prints in American intelligence agency databases.
9 December 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131209/185388905/Russia-to-Consider-iPhone-Ban-for-Officials-.html
Voices from Russia 
Russia to Consider iPhone Ban for Government Officials
Tags: Apple Inc, Barack Obama, cyberspace, Dmitri Medvedev, Dmitry Medvedev, electronic gadgets, electronic paper, iPhone, IPhone 5, Izvestia, Liquid crystal display, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Smartphone, Steve Jobs, United States, USA, Yota, Yotaphone
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On Monday, Izvestia reported that Russian lawmakers would consider requiring Russian government officials to ditch foreign-made smartphones like the iPhone and use the Russian-made Yotaphone instead, due to concerns about the lack of security of foreign-made communication gadgets. Izvestia stated that a Federation Council commission would analyse how vulnerable some contemporary communication devices are, which may lead to proposals that officials get rid of mobiles manufactured abroad as they’re anxious over potential government security breaches from the use of smartphones. Lawmakers interviewed by Izvestia raised questions about foreign-made telephones’ security, implying that outsiders could more easily hack them or spy on them than they could a Russian-made device. RF Gosduma Deputy Vadim Dengin told Izvestia, “There’d always be distrust towards smartphone manufacturers. Whoever makes the technology can also eavesdrop on it. I’d easily give up [my] smartphone in favour of a domestic smartphone designed specifically for us and by us. In this regard, I have high hopes for Yotaphone”.
Last week, the mobile broadband services provider Yota launched the twin-screened Yotaphone, which features a full-colour LCD screen on one side and a black-and-white electronic paper display on the other. Already, Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, a well-known Apple fan, has begun using the Yotaphone, the country’s first domestically-produced smartphone. Last week, he told reporters that he hoped it’d have better protection from spying than the iPhone. Recently, technology security came to the forefront of global government attention amidst media revelations that American security agencies monitored the telephone conversations of dozens of world leaders, leading to distrust by some Russian officials of American technology. Besides that, US President Barack Obama said that he couldn’t use an iPhone for security reasons. In September, Vitaly Milonov, a member of the St Petersburg Legislative Assembly, warned Russian officials against using Apple’s new iPhone 5, saying that the device’s fingerprint-recognition security measure could store the prints in American intelligence agency databases.
9 December 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131209/185388905/Russia-to-Consider-iPhone-Ban-for-Officials-.html