Company that won the contest to create this system developed part of the work in an office in Moscow while the Russian secrets had access to everything that was going on
The big concern is not to let in. But what if Russia is already inside? The alarm sounded from the European prosecutors, who are investigating the role of a Moscow office in building the border electronic system, where there is a giant database of millions of citizens.
According to the Actos Artificial Intelligence Group, which won the contest for the elaboration of this system, used employees in Russia to buy software in 2021 for this highly sensitive project – the entry and exit system (SES) – and which provides for the junction and storage of biometric data from non-European citizens.
The revelation of the involvement of Russian actors in the construction of a digital security barrier raises several doubts about the effectiveness and reliability of the system, and its launch remains uncertain, as the European Union has successively postponed the project’s launch date due to technical problems.
The documents now disclosed suggest that the French business acts in Moscow operated according to a license that allowed the access of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main body of the vast Russian secret services program, to which the company was to to do.
Financial Times states that the Russian side was directly involved in buying software for the border system, which would require express authorization on the European Union side.
Now the European Attorney’s Office is investigating the full extent of Acts Russia’s involvement in this project, trying to realize that data and with what depth may have been obtained from the Russian side.
SES serves as an automated computer system that allows you to record citizens from third countries traveling to a short stay whenever they cross borders from any of the countries that use this system. In addition to the 27 countries of the European Union, also Norway and Switzerland have this system.
It turns out that SES works by collecting data from all those who enter or leave the community bloc, with their biometrics and personal information as the states of their visas.
Russian documents that were made public confirm that the FSB, which granted the license to acts in 2016, had access to “development, production, distribution of encryption instruments, information systems and telecommunication systems”.
Working on the project since 2021, Acts guarantees that it left Russia in September 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine. Still, Moscow will have had the ability to access sensitive information for several months.
The Russian branch of Actos was responsible for SES software that allows airlines to verify information regarding passengers visas, according to Financial Times.
