Kazakhstan has introduced biometric identification of users when buying SIM cards since 3 January, the Kursiv newspaper reported citing the Central Asian country’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development.
After purchasing a SIM card and installing it in the phone, the device receives an SMS message, after which it can download the operator’s programme, Damir Seisembekov, chairman of the ministry’s Telecommunications Committee, said. Through the application, users must undergo biometric identification. If a person uses a button phone or does not have access to the internet, he or she can undergo biometric identification at the offices of mobile operators.
Rostislav Konyashkin, vice-minister of artificial intelligence and digital development, said earlier that the new system is aimed at fighting fraud and spoofed numbers. The official lamented that investigating cases of internet fraud is complicated if the phone number is not registered to a specific individual. At the same time, according to the new rules, one person is only allowed to register up to 10 SIM cards on himself.
“Kursiv, citing data from the Kazakh police, writes that in the first 11 months of 2025, 26.3 thousand internet crimes were registered in Kazakhstan, which is 20% more compared to the same period in 2024 and 3.4 times higher than in 2019.
The initiative to link SIM cards in Kazakhstan to the user’s biometric data was put forward by the Ministry of Digital Technologies in spring 2025. Then it was criticised in parliament.
Cybersecurity experts believe that registration by biometrics will be ineffective, as the technology makes it possible to spoof the numbers from which calls are made.