Government Approves Final Version of Alarm Button Law for Gosuslugi
Russia's State Duma has given final approval to legislation introducing an alarm button on the Gosuslugi (State Services) portal. The new feature is designed to let citizens quickly report suspected fraud and trigger a faster coordinated response from government agencies, banks, and telecommunications providers.
The legislation authorizes the introduction of an alarm button on the Gosuslugi (State Services) portal. Citizens will be able to use it to immediately report suspicious activity. Each report will be recorded in a government information system, allowing telecommunications providers, banks, and law enforcement agencies to respond more quickly.
Rapid Reporting of Fraud Attempts
This is a significant development because it effectively makes the Gosuslugi portal part of Russia's operational anti-fraud infrastructure for combating telephone and online scams. Beyond the alarm button itself, the law requires telecommunications providers to identify phone numbers used for illegal activity. Information about those numbers will be transferred to the government system, and their service will be suspended.
In effect, ordinary citizens will be able to report attempted fraud with minimal effort, stop suspicious activity, and trigger coordinated action by banks, telecommunications providers, and police. For the country, the initiative represents another step toward a more integrated digital protection system. The portal is evolving into an emergency response hub, strengthening coordination among Gosuslugi, banks, telecommunications providers, and law enforcement agencies, where rapid response has become one of the most important tools for preventing fraud.
Personal Digital Security
The service's next stage of development is expected to focus primarily on domestic deployment. Experts anticipate additional reporting channels, including similar alarm buttons in the MAX application and mobile banking apps, where fraudsters most frequently target users. Additional opportunities are also emerging through integration with the Bank of Russia's anti-fraud mechanisms and existing Gosuslugi services, which are increasingly serving as tools for personal digital security.
Although opportunities to export Russian software remain limited, the underlying architecture could attract interest from a number of countries. The model centers on a national digital government portal that serves as a single point for reporting fraud while integrating with banks, telecommunications providers, and law enforcement agencies. That approach could be relevant for countries with mature digital government services and nationwide digital identity systems.
The Evolution of Gosuslugi
In July 2024, the Bank of Russia approved six indicators of fraudulent transactions that banks must use when blocking or conducting additional reviews of suspicious transfers. The list includes transfers to accounts already flagged by anti-fraud systems, criminal proceedings involving the recipient, and unusual activity detected by telecommunications providers before a transaction takes place. Later that year, amendments to the Law on the National Payment System strengthened the responsibilities of banks and telecommunications providers that fail to act on those indicators. They are now required either to reject the transfer or impose a two-day cooling-off period for suspicious transactions.
Beginning on March 1, 2025, Russians gained the opportunity to use Gosuslugi to place voluntary bans on new loans and credit products, as well as access anti-fraud services, including the Life Situation service and self-imposed restrictions on issuing new SIM cards. By April 2026, millions of people had already used those tools. Against that backdrop, the second package of anti-cyberfraud measures, including the alarm button, child SIM cards, self-imposed restrictions on international calls, limits on the number of bank cards, and mandatory freezing of suspicious transfers by banks, represents a logical next step in transforming Gosuslugi into a personal digital security hub.
Triggering a Response While an Attack Is Underway
The legislative changes are significant for both Russia's IT sector and its digital government ecosystem. Gosuslugi is taking on the role of a real-time anti-fraud reporting platform rather than serving solely as a gateway to digital public services. That strengthens the government's role as the coordinator connecting citizens, banks, telecommunications providers, and law enforcement agencies.
The overall impact will depend on how quickly and smoothly the mechanism operates: how fast reports are transmitted, how intuitive the interface proves to be, and how clearly banks and telecommunications providers define their response procedures, including the possible introduction of similar alarm buttons in mobile applications.
Over the longer term, the legislation moves Russia toward a model in which anti-fraud protection combines citizen reports, banking analytics, telecommunications data, and government information systems. Rather than reporting an incident after the damage has already occurred, users will be able to trigger a coordinated interagency response while an attack is still in progress.
