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Yearender 2021: Why passing a privacy law is urgent
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Illustration of data protection (Shutterstock.com/Boiko Y)
L
ast year was a banner year for the exposure of personal information, and the lesson learned is that Indonesia needs to adopt a privacy law this year.
The series of cyberattacks on state institutions, from website defacements to data breaches, happened during the coronavirus pandemic when people relied more on digital technology but without proper regulations protecting their personal data.
One notable incident was detected in May, when an account with the username Kotz on online hacking forum RaidForums claimed to have personal information allegedly belonging to more than 200 million policyholders of the national health insurance (JKN) program, both dead and alive.
Kotz initially provided a link to three separate file-sharing websites on which data on 2 million people could be downloaded as a sample but later deleted the post and denied having offered to sell the data.
The Communications and Information Ministry found indications that the data was identical to that of the JKN's database because it contained personal information such as policy numbers and premium payment statuses. The ministry blocked access to RaidForums after finding that at least 100,000 entries of the data were valid.
The ministry also summoned the board directors of the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan), which manages the JKN program, and ordered it to coordinate its investigation with the ministry and the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN) and share with them all of its findings.
Read also: Alleged breach of BPJS data points to Indonesia's weak data protection: Experts
