Rostelecom integrates the portal of State Services with the Unified Biometric System for 1.2 billion rubles

As it became known in mid-January 2022, Rostelecom began integrating the State Services portal with the Unified Biometric System (EBS). To do this, the company signed a contract with the Ministry of Digital Affairs for 1.2 billion rubles.

According to Kommersant, citing the terms of reference for the project, the contractor will have to implement the possibility of entering using biometric data on the State Services portal, and through the mobile application it is planned to collect biometric casts from citizens (face and voice) using smartphones and tablet computers. Rostelecom needs to fulfill the terms of the contract until December 5, 2022.

Rostelecom integrates the portal of State Services with the Unified Biometric System for 1.2 billion rubles

A newspaper source in the Government of the Russian Federation said that after the completion of integration work, Russians will be encouraged to hand over biometrics, including restricting refuseniks from transmitting biometric data in obtaining some public services online. The interlocutor noted that linking biometrics to an account on the public services portal will increase the security of operations. Electronic digital signature can be transferred or lost, and biometrics will not be given, he said.

According to experts interviewed by the publication, linking biometrics to an account on the State Services portal will increase its security, especially in a situation where fraudsters have intensified. On January 15, 2022, the Ministry of Digital Affairs reported that it strengthened the protection of user accounts when changing the password on the State Services portal due to the activation of a new wave of fraud. Since the beginning of the year, attackers began calling victims on behalf of employees of the State Services portal and asking citizens to dictate a code from an SMS message, allegedly for activation or binding with QR codes about vaccination on the user's page.

Moscow Digital School expert Oleg Blinov suggested that for citizens they can limit the remote receipt of loans without giving biometrics, and then other services - issuing a passport, driver's license, etc.^[1]

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