The Ministry Of Communication And Information Searches For Data On COVID-19 Patients At The Ministry Of Health Suspected Of Leaking

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Communication and Information (Kemenkominfo) responded to the leak of COVID-19 patient data on the server of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes), now it has started the tracing process.

Spokesman for the Ministry of Communication and Information, Dedy Permadi, said the Minister of Communication and Information, Johnny G. Plate asked his staff to identify the problem further, of course in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations.

"Responding to the news circulating regarding the alleged leak of patient data managed by the Ministry of Health, Minister of Communications and Informatics Johnny G. Plate has ordered the relevant ranks to communicate intensively with the Ministry of Health and begin the process of further tracing in accordance with applicable laws and regulations," said Dedy. in a written statement quoted by VOI, Thursday, January 6.

Dedy said, meanwhile the Ministry of Health is also taking internal steps to respond to the alleged leak, "including one of them is coordinating with the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN)," said Dedy.

To prevent this from happening again, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, said Dedy, asked all electronic system (PSE) operators, both public and private, who manage personal data, to seriously pay attention to eligibility.

"(And) the reliability of personal data processing carried out by PSE is related to both the technology, governance, and human resources aspects," said Dedy.

As previously reported, as many as 6 million hospital patient data in Indonesia were successfully hacked by an unknown perpetrator, the data allegedly containing COVID-19 patients was then sold on Raid Forums online.

According to the upload to the Twitter account @Dynbnyy, who first learned about this, the patient data was taken from the Ministry of Health's central server with a total of 720 GB.

The data includes personal data, X-rays, ultrasound, to patient medical videos. The perpetrators were also reported to have provided evidence of electrocardiographic, laboratory, and radiological medical data samples.

The hackers admitted selling this data to only one or two people in the form of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin worth US$150,000 or equivalent to Rp. 2.15 billion.