The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of Kazakhstan has officially denied reports of a breach of the eGov system and the leak of personal data of 15 million citizens. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
The ministry, together with authorized bodies, conducted a technical inspection and found no violations in the eGov information systems. The ministry stated that it had accessed files put up for sale on the darknet and analyzed them.
"In addition, we gained access to files put up for sale on the darknet. During their analysis, it turned out that this is a collection of various unknown files and images. And it was established that this is not a copy of a database obtained from the eGov system," the statement said.
The ministry noted that there are other facts confirming the unreliability of the information, in particular, the volume and content of the published data array do not correspond to each other. Moreover, the eGov systems do not contain a database where scanned copies of passports would be stored, as the author of the announcement indicated. Digital documents are formed and stored in a completely different way.
"Therefore, we officially state once again: the eGov system has not been hacked. The information that the data of 15 million citizens of Kazakhstan was obtained from eGov systems does not correspond to reality," the ministry said.
The ministry also warned that the anonymous announcement on the darknet itself does not prove either a system breach or a data leak. This situation should not cause concern among citizens, as the results of the official inspection confirm the stable operation of eGov.