Digital Ministry proposes biometric verification for mobile operator customers

Kazakhstan is weighing the possibility of the introduction of biometric verification for SIM card buyers and prohibiting registration on websites from foreign phone numbers. According to Chair of the Information Security Committee Ruslan Abdikalikov, this can help to protect citizens from cybercrimes and terrorists.  

During a discussion of the risk of cybercrimes in the Mazhilis, Zharkynbek Amantai, an MP, proposed limiting the number of SIM cards to one per person and selling them in mobile operators’ offices exclusively.

«Currently, anyone can purchase as many SIM cards as he wants in many places. In some countries, you can buy a SIM card only from a mobile operator, not more than two or three per person. Can we discuss this issue on the legislative level?» Amantai said during the meeting. 

In turn, Abdikalikov proposed a different option: biometric verification during registration of a SIM card. He believes that this would help to prevent cards from being resold to third-party individuals and guarantee that a card is activated once its owner is verified.

«I’d suggest customers being verified, not just prevented from buying new SIM cards because when there is a limitation, someone may want to sell his quota to someone else. Our people think fast. This is why instead of unnecessary limitations, we have proposed conducting verification of mobile operators’ customers before their cards are activated. This proposal is currently under review,» the official stated.

In addition, Abdikalikov suggests prohibiting authorization on advertising websites with the help of foreign phone numbers or informing users that an advertisement was placed by foreigners.

Sholpan Tanzhyrykova from the anti-fraud department of Kazakhtelecom also believes that Kazakhstani phone numbers shouldn’t be available for everyone, especially abroad.

«If you take a look at any website of foreign mobile operators, you’ll see that Kazakhstani phone numbers are very popular among local customers. I mean, if a terrorist somewhere in Syria uses a phone number from Almaty, his call would look like a normal call within the city. You wouldn’t be able to identify this call as suspicious. We had a case when a terrorist from Syria called his wife in Almaty from a regular number and law enforcement agencies thought he was already in Almaty but he wasn’t. We have no legal rules preventing internal and foreign traffic from being mixed, although this measure is obvious,» she said.

On February 21, the Center for Analysis and Investigation of Cyber Attacks reported that Chinese hackers had direct access to the IT infrastructure of Kazakhstan for two years.

In particular, they received big data from Kazakhstani mobile operators — Beeline and KCell among others. As a result, they could attack law enforcement agencies in Kazakhstan.

Later, the government said that for the first time, it revealed trails of a hacker group within Kcell’s system in 2022.