SBU returns to Infrastructure Ministry State Register of Sailors previously seized by raiders
Cyber specialists of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) returned the State Register of Seafarers' Documents from the control of third parties to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the attackers used it for corruption schemes.
As head of the SBU's cybersecurity department Illia Vitiuk said at a briefing on Tuesday, two individuals, intermediaries of agencies that hired sailors, have already been reported as suspects. The issue of prosecuting other involved persons is currently being resolved.
"The SBU, together with the Prosecutor General's Office, stopped one of the largest corruption schemes in our country, which consisted of extorting bribes from Ukrainian sailors and was combined with interfering in state resources and even seizing the latter. The scale of this scheme is impressive: according to preliminary estimates, they more than $150 million in revenue a year. The scheme has been in operation for many years, with tens of thousands of sailors affected," he said.
Speaking about when the online register will work in full, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Yuriy Vaskov noted that the situation is very difficult and still needs time.
"As for the main issue, when it will work transparently in an IT format that is convenient for sailors, we still need time. This is a very serious work," he said.
According to Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, the new register will be fully owned by the state. The entrance to it will be carried out by means of a digital signature, which will make any manipulations in this sphere impossible in the future.
"We hope that all services related to seafarers will be launched in a simplified way on the Diia website according to all modern standards of state public services provision by European countries. Today, the task of the Digital Transformation Ministry is to help the Ministry of Infrastructure to do everything possible to create a new register as soon as possible and public services to be provided comprehensively and as soon as possible," Fedorov said.
