Leaked personal data could be abused by terrorists, CiSSReC

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Chairman of the Communication and Information System Security Research Center (CISSReC) Pratama Persadha has warned that leaked personal data could be abused by terrorists seeking to expand the group membership data and urged the authority to be attentive to  data protection issue.

"During a discussion with my colleagues in the House of Representatives (DPR RI), we agreed that there is an upward trend of leaked ID card and family registration data abused by terrorists to increase the membership count of their group," CISSReC chairman Pratama Persadha stated on a seminar about the urgency of the data protection bill observed from Jakarta on Sunday.

Persadha reported that data leak cases often occurred after the victim accessed a link to a website that data theft perpetrators used for data phishing to access their personal data and steal important information, such as personal ID numbers or account passwords.

He pointed out that terrorists have exploited the data theft method to pack their membership data with the personal ID of residents that have no relations with the terrorist group activity to deceit the Detachment 88 counter-terrorism special forces.

"The recent raid conducted by the Detachment 88 forces revealed that the terrorists have collected multitudes of ID cards on their membership data, but after further investigation, the special forces concluded that those ID cards belong to the people who have no relation with the terrorist group nor participating in terrorist activities," Persadha stated.

The cyber security expert highlighted that Personal Data Protection Bill is urgent to be passed to ensure personal data safety and accountability on data leak cases, as well as to provide protection from potential data abuse by criminals, including terrorists.

"Imagine if the counter-terrorism forces suddenly raided our home because the terrorists have our ID card on their membership data," he cautioned.