Kominfo Ministry Says Alleged Voters' Data Leak is Economically Motivated

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Director General of Information and Public Communication of the Communication and Informatics Ministry Usman Kansong responded to the voters' data leak issue involving the General Elections Commission (KPU).

"So far we have identified that it was economically motivated," he said on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023.

According to Usman, two indicators support this theory. "First, Jimbo, the hacker, sold and offered up the data to the public for Rp1.1 billion," he said.

The second indicator is related to the data itself. "Who actually needed [voters] data? Participants of the general elections, no? But they already have the data in the first place," he added. Thus, his side concluded that the alleged voters' data leak was economic in nature.

However, he also reminded the general public to avoid disregarding the political implications of this issue. "For example, this should not delegitimize the general elections' organizer and implementation," he remarked.

Usman stressed that his side has coordinated with the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN), KPU, and the National Police's cybercrime division to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Furthermore, Usman admitted that the alleged leaked data did have similarities with data stored on KPU's website. 

"The structure, the components, include the identification number (NIK), passport number if [the voter] is abroad, name, polling stations. We did not inspect in detail each of the data but the structure was similar," he concluded.

DEFARA DHANYA | ANANDA RIDHO SULISTYA

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