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Government moving at snail's pace in forming data protection body
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Illustration of data protection (Shutterstock.com/Boiko Y)
C
ybersecurity watchdogs have slammed the government for moving at a snail’s pace in devising implementing regulations for the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Law, particularly since the two-year deadline has already passed and millions of items of data have been stolen and sold on the dark web in a string of hacking incidents lately.
The law, ratified on Oct. 17, 2022 to spur improvements in cybersecurity, granted a grace period of two years for the government to establish a data protection agency, which will directly answer to the president and impose administrative sanctions, as well as non-judicial fines on data controllers or processors that breach the rights of data subjects.
However, as of today, the government has yet to even come up with a presidential regulation on the establishment of the oversight body, as mandated by the privacy law.
“The government could be considered half-hearted in implementing the PDP Law [as it has failed to set up the agency according to the specified deadline],” Pratama Persadha of the Communication and Information System Security Research Center (CISSReC) said on Thursday.
“A series of cyberattacks that have occurred recently in the country have further reflected the government’s lack of concern regarding cybersecurity issues [...] even though many regard Indonesia as an open source country due to the rampant data leaks,” he added.
Read also: Fresh data breach puts pressure on government to form cyber privacy agency
Unggul Sagena from digital rights group the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) echoed Pratama’s sentiment and questioned the government’s seriousness in protecting citizens’ privacy.
