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Voter roll breach claim overshadows election logistics preparations
The data breach claim could cause the public to lose trust in the General Elections Commission's (KPU) digital security system or, worse, the entire election process, analysts fear.
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Members of the public access the 2024 general election supervisory application on Nov. 28 in Jakarta. The application is the product of collaboration between the Communications and Information Ministry, the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and the National Police and is aimed at gathering public reports on election violations. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
An alleged data breach has hit the General Elections Commission (KPU), raising concerns about the vulnerability of the poll body’s digital security system, which analysts say can potentially compromise the upcoming elections’ integrity.
Claims of a breach in the KPU’s voter roll came to light on Tuesday, after an account named Jimbo posted on online hacker platform BreachForums that they were looking to sell 204.8 million pieces of unique data from the Indonesian voters list.
As proof of authenticity, the poster shared 500,000 pieces of data, which included the full name, sex, date and place of birth, marital status, full address and ID and family card numbers of voters.
The claim has since caused a stir among observers, who fear that the public might lose trust in the KPU’s digital security or the entire election process if it is validated.
The election organizer is working closely with a task force that consists of officials of the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN), the National Police’s cybercrime unit, the National Intelligence Agency and the Communications and Information Ministry to validate the breach claim, according to KPU chair Hasyim Asy’ari.
He also alluded to the possibility that the breach did not come from the KPU’s database.
“The 2024 election voter roll, in the soft copy form, exists not only in the KPU’s data center, but also with other parties,” Hasyim said on Wednesday.
