The Ministry of Digital Science has formed a working group for the transition to the massive use by Russians of the technology of using an enhanced qualified electronic signature (UKEP) based on a SIM card. We are talking about an electronic signature of the current maximum protection class, comparable in legal force with a handwritten one. This was told to Vedomosti by the members of the working group, which, in addition to officials of the Ministry of Digital Security, included representatives of the FSB, telecom operators and scientific organizations.
Alexey Merkutov, director of the corporate communications department of MTS, confirmed his participation in the working group: “Now a dialogue is underway on the architecture of the solution, terms, requirements for the developer, on which the volume of investments will depend. It is obvious that the cost of a SIM card will increase due to the use of a more complex chipset. “
“VTB has received an invitation and is preparing proposals on the composition of the participants in this working group created by the Ministry of Digital Industry,” Irina Petrovskaya, Senior Vice President, Deputy Head of the Department for Management and Coordination of Technological Changes at VTB, told Vedomosti.
Vedomosti sent inquiries to the Ministry of Tsifra and the FSB of Russia, by the time the number was submitted, no responses were received.
Tele2 is not aware of the creation of such a working group, but representatives of the company participated in consultations with the regulator on the topic of SIM cards with UKEP, Tele2 press secretary Daria Kolesnikova told Vedomosti.
Rostelecom is interested in the topic of electronic digital signature, said a company representative, noting that the advantages of the UKEP technology on a SIM card will be to ensure a high class of information security: “Accordingly, the use of technology is advisable when carrying out the most critical and risky operations.”
Megafon refrained from commenting.
What are electronic signatures
Now Russians can get three types of electronic signatures – simple, strengthened unqualified and strengthened qualified.
A simple electronic signature, for example, can be used for individuals to receive those electronic services on the mos.ru portal, for which a simple registration on it is enough – without confirming the account. A simple electronic signature can also be considered a combination of login and password, with an SMS code when entering a client bank or when paying for services through a mobile bank. An enhanced unqualified electronic signature is used, for example, when processing cash documents in electronic form, when individuals interact with the tax service, when signing documents in corporate information systems with employees, or when purchasing eSIM from some telecom operators. An enhanced qualified signature has the maximum degree of legal significance and is equivalent to a handwritten signature. It allows a business to submit reports to the tax authorities, connect to the portal of public services, to the portal of the “Honest Sign” marking system, participate in electronic trading, etc. Now the UKEP is installed on a PC, the token for it is stored on a USB drive or smart card.
According to Kolesnikova, the UKEP on a SIM card will be able to be used in the provision of state and banking services, tax transactions, electronic document management, participation in electronic auctions, conclusion of purchase and sale transactions: signatures on paper.
The only condition is that the counterparty must agree to accept such a signature and implement the technical capability on its side. “
In 2021, interest in the UKEP grew among organizations, individual entrepreneurs and individuals, notes Sergey Kazakov, head of the Kontur certification center. According to him, at the beginning of October 2021, the demand for electronic signatures increased by 26% compared to the same period in 2020.
Mobile signature for the masses
The introduction of the UKEP technology on a SIM card will require investments from the operator – the main emphasis will be on the safety of the solution and compliance with regulatory standards, Kolesnikova says: service providers “.
According to a VTB representative, the massive use of the UKEP technology in the U-SIM form factor for the provision of state, municipal and commercial services can be ensured subject to changes in the current regulations and the support of the regulator: “The volume of investments for the development of technology will depend on the list of services and requirements from from the side of the regulator, the assessment of the volume of investments will be possible after the discussion of the issues of applying the technology by the working group ”.
Svetlana Belova, General Director of Identity Management Systems LLC (IDX), noted that a SIM card with UKEP differs from a regular SIM card in that it uses Russian cryptographic algorithms, and in those SIM cards that are now installed in our phones, foreign encryption is used.
SIM cards with UKEP were developed by the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences. S. A. Lebedeva, knows Belov. According to her, Russian software is still installed on foreign chips. The next step is the production of domestic chips for SIM cards, and then the level of security is increased by another class and it becomes simply the highest possible level of security, says Belova.
General Director of the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after V.I. S. A. Lebedeva, Professor Alexander Knyazev told Vedomosti that since 2014 his organization has been dealing with the topic of changing the authentication mechanism for subscribers of cellular networks with the transition to a domestic cryptographic algorithm: “These changes should lead to the fact that, on the one hand, cryptography should appear in the SIM card itself, and on the other hand, changes should take place in the core of the network. “
Testing of SIM-cards with domestic authentication mechanisms, but without UKEP, according to Knyazev, is now being conducted with the Voentelecom operator (the operator’s press service did not respond to Vedomosti’s request).
The price of new SIM-cards will be determined to a large extent depending on the price of the OS, the price of software personalization, and the price of the chip itself, Knyazev believes: “For operators, the price of a SIM-card will increase, but not dramatically; consumers of cellular communications.
According to Knyazev, the production of 100-150 million SIM-cards with UKEP per year is currently being discussed: “In such SIM-cards, at the transitional stages, it is planned to use both imported chips and chips developed in Russia, but produced at a foreign factory. At the final stage, we are undoubtedly talking about the transition to a domestic chip ”.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade told Vedomosti that they are considering the possibility of producing chips for SIM-cards with UKEP on the territory of the Russian Federation: “If necessary, we will consider the options for subsidizing.”
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