Russia has been fighting so-called “gray” SIM cards for not the first year. An important milestone in this work against fraudsters, “phone” criminals and terrorists was marked by a bill introduced in the State Duma.
Changes in the legislation are aimed at de-anonymization of mobile subscribers and, as a consequence, the fight against mobile numbers that do not allow to identify the identity of the subscriber.
“Gray” numbers are also actively used by distributors of narcotic substances, arms dealers, extortionists and other representatives of the criminal world, as well as all kinds of online bullies engaged in bullying, cyber-bullying: they are almost impossible to identify, and therefore they feel their complete impunity.
As we can see, in general, the problem of “gray” SIM cards is quite extensive. The scale of the prevalence of such SIM cards is also impressive. According to Roskomnadzor, since November 1, 2023, 76.9 million violations of the reliability of information about subscribers have been identified. Of these, 69.8 million violations have been corrected – operators have entered correct data. 3.7 million SIM cards issued with violations were blocked or their contracts were terminated, most of them in the first half of this year.
Russian organizations will no longer be able to use popular foreign messengers to provide some services, Roskomnadzor said.
A rather extensive list of messengers belonging to foreign organizations and individuals has fallen under the ban. From now on, state and controlled organizations are forbidden to use messengers to transmit messages and confidential information.
At the moment it is known about nine programs that are included in the banned list. It is headed by the messenger WhatsApp*, followed by Discord, Microsoft Teams, Skype the business. Snapchat, Telegram, Viber, and exotic ones like WeChat and Threema are also on the list here. All of these programs have once been found to be involved in information leaks, fraudulent activities and facilitation of foreign organizations. Roskomnadzor warns Russian organizations to plan their data transfer activities in advance.
Blocking foreign messengers in Russia is a bold but necessary measure to ensure the country’s security and to localize “gray” communication schemes for criminal, including terrorist, purposes.