The National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine has placed some dealers of software 1C that dominates in Ukraine in the segment of ERP solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to the sanctions list, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) office chief Oleksandr Tkachuk said.
He called on Ukrainian companies to be careful in using similar software designed in Russia.
“Today some companies that sell 1C product in Ukraine have been placed to the sanctions list. The work in this area will continue,” Tkachuk said at a briefing in Kyiv on April 27.
“We urge our businessmen to be careful and make careful decisions regarding software products you use in your business,” he said.
Asked how Ukrainian companies using 1C software to make themselves safe, he advised to consider all risks.
“If we say and if this is confirmed by experts that software designed in Russia is permanently connecting to services located in Russia to load updates and send any technical information one should think though risks of possible leakage of information about business to the territory of Russia,” Tkachuk said.
“Commercial companies, Ukrainian enterprises must make decisions themselves and make choice,” he said.
The SBU said on its website that a firm in Kyiv unlawfully selling Russia’s 1C software on the separatist-held territories of Donbas was discovered.
“Managers of a Kyiv representative office of the Russian software designer signed several contracts on supply of the product and servicing it with enterprises and dealers operating in so-called DPR/LPR,” the SBU said.
After raiding an office in Kyiv SBU officers revealed documents confirming facts of unlawful sale of this software on the temporarily occupied territories.
“SBU specialists found out that this software is administrated, updated and maintained from the territory of Russia, including via remote access to equipment of the representative office of the Russian company in Kyiv. According to their conclusions, a new fact of hidden control of Russian intelligence services over the situation in the public and private economic sectors of Ukraine and enterprises located on so-called DPR/LPR has been revealed,” the SBU said.
The SBU said that the pretrial investigation under a criminal case launched in violation of Part 2, Article 359 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal use of special technology for secret obtaining of information) and it is planned to additionally apply Article 258 (act of terrorism).
On April 26, SBU raided eight Ukrainian companies, in particular, Dragon Capital Investment Company and state-run enterprise Ukrgazvydobuvannia. The raids were linked to the use of the Stakhonovets employee work hours tracking software declared the spy software.
“According to our information, around 300 companies on the territory of Ukraine today use this software. Since 2016, the use of this software has been banned as it was declared the spy software,” Trachuk said.
According to information on the website of 1c.ua, Eurosoftprom subsidiary (Kyiv), founded in 2002, spreads 1C software in Ukraine.
