TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Minister of Communication and Information or Kominfo, Johnny G. Plate, responded to the recent personal data leak case. He said that personal data has a high economic value and relates to the geostrategic and sovereignty of a nation.

He, therefore, said that personal data management must be done correctly. The minister admitted that the ministry is fighting for regulations related to cross-border data so that it can be managed properly.

"The electronic system operators in the country must protect encryption well in order to protect the public personal data," he said when met at The Westin Resort, in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Saturday, September 3.

He said that Kominfo had prepared a strategy to trace where the leak potential is located. Besides, the ministry will analyze if the leak is relevant to the latest data.

"All needs to be checked. If the potential is found, we'll conduct an audit on the security technology or encryption in the electronic system operators," said Johnny.

On the other side, according to Johnny, data owners must protect their data well. He asked the public to keep their personal data by not sharing the Population Identification Number (NIK) recklessly with other people or third parties.

He viewed that the people must have control over their data and that NIK can only be used for things that are needed and trusted. "There must be a responsibility. Take care of your own NIK," said Johnny.

In addition, passwords in digital platforms must be changed regularly as the minister believes that it can help protect personal data, so it cannot be hacked. He said that a data leak may happen due to people's negligence and it can be a huge problem if people cannot keep their data well.

On August 21, a cyber security consultant, Teguh Aprianto, on his Twitter account revealed an alleged data leak of Indihome customers. He showed that the data were sold in an illegal forum. Some 26,730,797 data comprised browsing history and customers' personal data, such as sex, names, and NIK and it was around 16.79 GB. The data record he showed was an accumulation of data throughout the August 2018 - November 2019 period. The data was allegedly managed to be breached in August 2022.

Riani Sanusi Putri

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