Raider seizure or cleanup of State register (updated)

Image  www.gurt.org.ua 

On Thursday members of the Justice Ministry’s Information Centre (Derzhinformjust) issued an open statement asserting that the Information Centre had come under a raider seizure.  Media reports, however, suggest a much more complicated picture, with a battle for control over a highly lucrative business raging.  The conflict led to all state registers being blocked for some days, with the situation still not fully resolved. 

One point of view

“On behalf of the Derzhinformjust team I am officially informing you that what has taken place is not simply a hacking attack, but a raider seizure by unidentified individuals of state registers, that is, all confidential information about Ukrainian citizens.”

The document, with a number of signatures, was issued to the press on Thursday.  It says that on Sept. 23 L. Bohdanov was appointed head of the Information Centre. “On his first working day, the new director gave an instruction to copy all information on databases with this being done by strangers who are not staff of our enterprise.”

“While the information was being copied, these “hackers” brought in by L. Bohdanov cracked the security software of one of the servers which led to a total halt to the work of all registers.”

“We wish to point out that the change in management took place in a strange manner reminiscent of a forced takeover (unidentified individuals with weapons, aggressive treatment of staff, the blocking of the premises).”  They go on to suggest that this may be because Bohdanov brought in as head of the security service a person well-know for raid seizure.  They name this person as Serhiy Malyeta and assert that he specializes in seizures of flats and real estate crime.”

The person who is apparently speaking for his colleagues is Deputy General Director Vadym Khoruzhenko.

Derzhinformjust holds 18 State registers, including a register of property ownership; of writs; of notarized documents; Birth, death and marriage register and others.

Khoruzhenko told Ukrainska Pravda that the Centre has not been receiving the money allocated for its work since July.  He suggests that somebody may want to appropriate that money.  He says that the funding in the Budget is there, but it is not reaching the Centre. 

Another

Reports on various websites, including one by Mustafa Nayem on Ukrainska Pravda, suggest that the situation is complicated, with the new management of the Justice Ministry seeking to stamp on the old guard within Derzhinformjust  and / or gain control over a highly lucrative structure.  Just one detail is sufficient to explain that the conflict will be fierce.  The registers require specific software which has for years been provided by two companies which receive incredible amounts in royalties, even though the software was created with state funding.