Health Ministry Ensures No Data Leak in PeduliLindungi Apps

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Health Ministry has affirmed no data leak in PeduliLindungi (to care and protect) application and called on the public to remain using the COVID-19 contact tracing application.

The ministry's spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccination Siti Nadia Tarmizi said that there are a lot of unconfirmed information or hoaxes among the community on some different cases that were not related to one another, but related to the apps.

First, regarding to the leaked vaccination certificate of President Joko Widodo, she confirmed that until now there is no evidence on data leak in the apps.

There are certain parties that have the President’s citizenship identification number (NIK) and his vaccination date to be used for accessing the President’s vaccination certificate, she revealed.

“So, this is the misuse of personal identity to access the information of unrelated parties, not a data leak,” she stressed.

Tarmizi then urged the public to remain using the PeduliLindungi apps since all Indonesian citizen personal data are protected under the law.

She added that the apps had passed a strict IT security assessment conducted by the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN).

Regarding the illegal vaccination certificate purchase connected to PCare system and PeduliLindungi apps, she said, based on the Jakarta Police investigation, a suspected administration staff at a ward office abused his authority to access PCare, thereby enabling him to make vaccination certificate and connected to the apps without going through proper procedures and no need to get vaccinated.

She emphasized that the case was not a data leak, but an abuse of authority.

“We highly appreciate the Jakarta Police for having successfully uncovering and arresting the perpetrators of making and selling illegal COVID-19 vaccination certificates connected to PeduliLindungi,” she highlighted.

Regarding the electronic Health Alert Card (eHAC) data, Tarmizi emphasized that the personal data in the system were not leaked nor went to third parties's platform.

The information on eHAC’s partner platforms vulnerability as reported by VPN mentor and verified by BSSN have been received by the Health Minister on August 23, 2021, according to Tamizi.

The ministry then traced and found the vulnerability on the partner’s platforms, thereby taking actions and repairing the system, she added.

“The vulnerability on the old eHAC system is not integrated to PeduliLingundi apps. The ministry have urged public to uninstall eHAC apps and use PeduliLindungi apps that has been integrated to eHAC,” she pointed out.

Read: Jokowi's Personal Data Leaked; Health Minister Secures Data in PeduliLindungi

ANTARA