Passports are being converted into digital format – Kommersant FM

Vladimir Putin signed a decree on a digital passport, a paper document is equal to an electronic one from the State Services application. Within three months, the government and the FSB must determine the procedure and cases of use of the digital passport. The Ministry of Digital Development published a draft decree two years ago. Then it was planned that such a document would be issued in the form of smart cards and an application with a QR code. The passport had to have a chip with information about the citizen, including a photo and fingerprints.

In the case of the QR code, the full implementation of the digital passport system is unlikely to be delayed, says Svetlana Belova, general director of the operator for processing personal data “Identity Management System”:

“If we are just talking about attaching a QR code, then, of course, this can be done very quickly, within six months for sure. There will also be a need for more regulations and approvals of all kinds.

Meanwhile, we are accustomed to the fact that the passport, which we usually use, serves as an identity document in all cases. How they will decide here is unknown.

It is clear that there is a surname, first name and patronymic, and there is information about the diseases of a particular person. Both belong to the category of personal data, but their protection is subject to different protection and security requirements.

So I think that here, too, there should be some kind of classification of cases when it is appropriate to present a digital passport, and when it is necessary to present a paper version.

As for possible difficulties, as soon as my data becomes available to someone, I find myself at risk. There are hacks of State Services, there are sales of accounts from this portal, and this is a mass phenomenon.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Digital Development said that digital copies of the passport will not replace the original documents. The mobile application can only be used in certain cases, the department clarified.

However, the introduction of such an option could provoke an increase in attacks by scammers, says Igor Bederov, owner of the Internet Search company:

“This news itself will obviously be used to distribute illegitimate State Services applications and phishing through their web versions.

I assume that there will be some kind of reorientation of telephone scammers who will use the news about registration or restoration of access to the portal as a disguise.

In addition, it is important to consider that, by analogy with certificates of vaccination and testing for coronavirus infection, a huge number of illegitimate online document verification services will most likely appear. The model of their application is quite wide.

Finally, hacking of profiles on State Services cannot be ruled out. There is also a big risk here, including both the issuance of microloans – this is a popular scheme for using hacked profiles, and the collection of votes in the upcoming elections.”

Earlier it became known that only 27% of Russians would like to have an electronic passport on their phone, according to a survey by the Superjob portal. Almost 60% would refuse this, and 15% of respondents were undecided. The respondents most often argued their position with data security considerations, analysts note.

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Daniil Babkin, Daria Fomenko