Selling 442 apartments in 5 seconds and 6 arrests...

Baku/15.04.22/Turan: Those involved in the illegal interference in the electronic sale of apartments of the State Housing Development Agency (SHDA) were held accountable, stated a joint statement of the State Security Service and the Civil Aviation Administration.

Thus, the interference took place on March 30 during the preferential sale of 442 apartments in the Yasamal residential complex. The intervention took place using special software.

The State Security Service conducted an investigation,  filing a lawsuit under  the following Articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan: Articles 273.3.1 (Repeated unlawful interference with a computer system or computer information) and 273.3.2 (Serious interference with the operation of a computer system by introducing, transferring, damaging, destroying, spoiling, changing or blocking computer information by a person not entitled to it) and established that the citizens of Azerbaijan: Elchin Mammadov, Ruslan Hajiyev, Firudin Huseynov, Yunis Latifzade, Tarlan Abdullayev and Javid Mammadov, having colluded with other persons, gained access to the system "Affordable housing." They developed and applied special software in order to purchase housing bypassing the rules for persons who paid them for this “service”. Thus, they illegally interfered in the process of choosing apartments, causing significant damage to the rights of citizens.

These persons are brought to criminal responsibility as defendants. The public will be informed of the results of the investigation, the statement said.

With comments on this case, Elnur Farzaliyev, an expert on real estate issues, speaks in the program "Difficult Question".

According to him, the goal of the Affordable Housing program of the State Housing Development Agency is to create opportunities for citizens of the country, and especially poor citizens, to purchase apartments at an affordable price.

“The prices are normal, the place allotted for the construction of the residential complex is very good, the monthly payments are relatively low. However, the procedures are such that in the process of buying and selling apartments, citizens face serious problems,” Farzaliyev said.

In his opinion, for electronic sales, high-speed Internet is required, and buyers must have computer skills. However, as you can see, during sales, the speed of the Internet drops and the process fails. In addition, not all buyers have the skills to use electronic devices.

The expert also noted that on March 30, a cyber-attack occurred during sales.

“What happened during the sales? Hacker attack. But if an electronic sales system is created, then it must certainly have a system of protection against cyberattacks,” the expert believes.

According to Farzaliyev, it is necessary to understand - what prompted citizens who are already registered in the Affordable Housing system to turn to the "services" of hackers?

“Obviously, the complexity of this e-sales system. Citizens were forced to go to extra expense to hire people versed in information technology. At the same time, one should not be surprised at the sale of 442 apartments in 5 seconds, when 8,939 people are fighting for them,” he said, adding that there are many citizens who have participated in such auctions more than once and could not buy apartments.

“There are hundreds of such people. And, with so many people wanting to buy housing, even if the rules are good and the process is transparent, citizens will certainly have doubts that it is carried out honestly. So it was inevitable that people would become suspicious.”

Farzaliyev is convinced that some changes should be made to the sales rules - to allow people to auction not in large numbers, but in small groups; simplify the sales process.

Answering the question “Was there any collusion between the hackers and the employees of the SHDAS?”  the expert said: "An investigation is underway and if it turns out that not only at the last sale, but also before, there were cases of violation of the law, then it will not be possible to hide it." –0—