Kominfo, KPU, BSSN Probe Alleged Election Data Breach

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Communications and Information (Kominfo) Minister Johnny G. Plate said his side was cooperating with the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN) to investigate an alleged breach of 2.3 million data of Indonesian voters. 

“I have communicated about the alleged data leak with the KPU chairman. The Kominfo, the KPU, and the BSSN will immediately step up its security and track the cause of this issue,” said Johnny to reporters on Friday, May 22.

Due to the rampant emergence of such issues recently, Johnny said, the presence of law on personal data became more urgent. “We really need a proper legal umbrella. So we hope the political process of discussions on the private data protection bill could commence immediately," the National Democrat (NasDem) politician said. 

In the meantime, he continued, Kominfo was preparing a National Data Center that would integrate the government's data with a layered security system based on applicable security standards.

“The data center is expected to prevent data transfer from one institution to another and strengthen the security of national data and information,” Johnny said.

As previously reported, hackers under Twitter account @underthebreach claimed to have breached the personal data of 2.3 million Indonesians from the General Elections Commission (KPU)'s database on Thursday, May 21.

“The data included names, addresses, ID numbers, dates of birth, and other personal information,” it tweeted. The account was the same user that reported the leakage of e-commerce platform Tokopedia's data earlier this month.

DEWI NURITA