Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The manufacturer of biometric passports – the state enterprise Poligraphkombinat “Ukraine” – was unable to confirm the existence of all expert opinions from Ukrainian examinations required for producing a bio-passport.
This is stated in a report by Nadiya Burdey.
Such conclusions are mandatory. Before production, PK “Ukraine” must officially confirm that the personal and biometric data of a citizen of Ukraine recorded on the passport chip are protected. This requirement is written into the Law “On the Unified State Demographic Register and Documents That Confirm Ukrainian Citizenship, Identify a Person, or Confirm Their Special Status” and other subordinate acts.
As of 17 February, expert opinions from the State Special Communications Administration regarding the protection of personal and biometric data existed for only three companies: the consortium “Yedaps,” the state enterprise PK “Ukraine,” and the company “Unit.”
However, unlike the other two companies that have a full set of documents, PK “Ukraine” does not have opinions regarding the cryptographic protection for the chip used in the bio-passport (Infineon). The opinions for those chips are held by the company “Unit.”
This company is not part of YEDAPS nor part of PK “Ukraine” and has never previously been involved in passport production. Why did “Unit” register opinions on the cryptographic protection of biometric data when only PK “Ukraine” has the exclusive right to manufacture passports in Ukraine?
The founder of “Unit” is the Cypriot company Feriolo Holdings LTD. In 2013–2014 years a co-founder of Feriolo was Sykon Holdings LTD. As journalists from Deutsche Welle found out, that company is the owner of the Cypriot firm Magavenia Investments, which was recently transferred to Active Capital Group LLC, previously owned by the mother-in-law of Eduard Stavitsky – Valentyna Ushakova. The director of Active Capital Group is still Anatoliy Stavitsky, the ex-minister’s father.
Thus, in Ukraine the expert conclusions on the technical and cryptographic protection of personal and biometric information for the Infineon chips embedded in the Ukrainian bio-passport are held by a company connected to the former Minister of Energy and Coal Industry, Eduard Stavitsky. The state company does not have such conclusions at all.
Additionally, according to sources for the “Nashi Groshi” program, over recent months “Unit” imported a list of equipment and “components” into Ukraine necessary for producing biometric passports. In particular:
– SMART cards (sheet blanks in the form of passport covers sg-2UP-UN), which have contacts in the form of an electronic integrated circuit with a chip module and two antennas, unprogrammed, blue in color;
– blanks of SMART-card inlets (sheet blanks in the form of unprogrammed cards PI-PCID-UNACR), which have contacts in the form of an electronic integrated circuit with a chip module;
– blanks of SMART-card passport inlets (sheet blanks in the form of internal twin inlet cards for passports EI-UP-UN);
– spare parts for SMART-card ID documents (monolithic electronic integrated circuits with a microcontroller module);
– protective polyethylene thermal-transfer film for laminating cards and documents and protecting them from damage;
– blanks, forms of smart ID cards with a chip module;
– card and document readers. Designed to read the chip’s contents by decoding the information obtained from cards and passport-type documents.
All this equipment is necessary either for the clandestine production of bio-passports or for resale to Poligraphkombinat “Ukraine.” The state printers did not respond to a request about the supplier of passport components. The secretary of “Unit” during the journalists’ second visit replied that the company had moved to an unknown location. Phones were turned off.
The “Unit” website lists a number of government institutions that were clients of the firm. However, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Main Department of Civil Service, the Ministry of Health, and even the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, when asked by journalists, did not confirm cooperation with “Unit.”
Recall that “Unit” and Poligraphkombinat “Ukraine” previously had business relations involving substantial amounts. In the summer of 2014 the “Nashi Groshi” program established that the printers paid Stavitsky’s firm 300 million hryvnias for the right to apply an additional barcode to excise stamps. The protection proved unreliable and unnecessary and was canceled by a Cabinet resolution after the program’s broadcast. In addition, “Unit” was supposed to supply equipment for reading the barcode, but the tax authorities and the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not have the devices that summer.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "На біометричних паспортах заробляє фірма втікача Ставицького, – «Наші гроші»". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Bihus.Info.