Ukraine is considering legislative changes that would require the identification of all mobile phone users, both new and existing. The initiative was discussed by the parliamentary subcommittee on cybersecurity in the context of combating the use of mobile networks by hostile drones.
Ukraine is considering legislative changes that would require the identification of all mobile phone users, both new and existing. The initiative was discussed by the parliamentary subcommittee on cybersecurity in the context of combating the use of mobile networks by hostile drones.
A meeting of the Verkhovna Rada subcommittee on cyber security, government communications, and cryptographic information protection was held at the end of May. The focus was on the active use of the infrastructure of Ukrainian mobile operators by Russian UAVs, in particular through unverified SIM cards. This was reported by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence .
The meeting discussed the need to introduce mandatory identification of all mobile subscribers, including active ones. There was also a proposal to temporarily turn off mobile communications in certain areas during an air alert in case of enemy UAVs in the air. Among other solutions, technical and administrative steps to counter drones that can interact with the network through anonymous numbers.
The head of the subcommittee, Oleksandr Fedienko, added on Facebook that over 80% of mobile phone users in Ukraine are unidentified. According to him, about 40% of them use their numbers as financial ones to log in to banking applications. This creates a paradox: for the bank, the number is assigned to a person, but for fraudsters, it is a «nobody’s» SIM card.
«Tens of millions of citizens could become victims of financial fraud or theft of personal data. Mobile subscriber identification is no longer just a matter of convenience, but of national security,» Fedienko explained. He acknowledged that potential legislative changes could be unpopular, but stressed that security is a priority, at least for the period of martial law.
Ukrainian intelligence agencies have repeatedly recorded cases of hostile drones using mobile signals for navigation or data transmission. SIM cards that are not tied to a person simplify such activities, and also make it difficult to detect drone operators. In the Baltic countries, France, Germany, Poland and many others, such identification of subscribers is a mandatory practice.
Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the veracity of the fact that Russian drones can use Ukrainian mobile networks for navigation and data transmission via Telegram bots. In one of our materials, we talked about this topic with a top manager of one of the cellular companies.
