Russia pushing Unified Biometric System to enter secure facilities

The Russian Ministry of Digital Development is preparing a bill proposing the use of the country’s Unified Biometric System for access to sensitive facilities.

According to Russian pro-Putin daily newspaper Kommersant, the measure would apply to industrial, defense, nuclear and other security facilities, and would aim to create a guaranteed demand for UBS services.

However, the use of biometrics would be voluntary, with companies not ready to use the UBS being able to access facilities with passes and cards.

The Russian federal government decided in 2016 to develop biometrics systems for citizen identification and electronic transaction verification. The development of the Unified Biometrics System officially started one year later.

Last January, the Russian government announced it had started accepting (but not requiring) identifiers in the Unified Biometric System for authentication when interacting with state services online.

The same month, the digital ministry opened a channel for transferring people’s biometric data, collected by banks, to the system.

More recently, a bill that would require banks to share clients’ biometric data with the state has been adopted by Russia’s lower house of parliament.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometric database  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  identity verification  |  legislation  |  Russia  |  Unified Biometrics System