House Of Representatives Commission X: Ministry Of Education And Culture Must Work Hard To Restore Lost KIPK Recipient Data

Deputy Chairman of Commission X DPR RI Hetifah Sjaifudian. Photo: Dep/vel

JAKARTA - Commission X of the DPR stated that the Ministry of Education and Culture must work hard to recover data on 800,000 prospective students who register for the Smart Indonesia Card (KIPK) due to the case of breaking into the National Data Center (PDN) database. This responsibility is a corrective action for the Ministry of Education and Culture which does not copy or back-up data on hundreds of prospective KIPK recipients which results in the announcement of beneficiaries being postponed. "Kemendikbudristek must work hard to recover the missing data and ensure that the selection process for KIPK recipients can be continued as quickly as possible," said Deputy Chairman of Commission X DPR, Hetifah Sjaifudian when contacted by VOI, Friday, June 28. Hetifah assessed that improvement measures must also be applied to improve the security and reliability of the system in the future. Moreover, he said, the postponement of the announcement of KIPK recipients due to data leakage and the loss of data backup (PDN) is a very unfortunate situation and has some serious implications. "The loss of unbacked-up data shows a weakness in the data management system used. This emphasizes the importance of having a strong and regular back-up procedure to avoid the loss of important data," said Hetifah. In addition, continued Hetifah, Kemendikbudristek is also required to provide a transparent explanation of how this incident could occur. As well as what steps are taken to recover data and prevent similar incidents in the future. "The postponement of the announcement of KIPK recipients certainly affects thousands of students who rely on this assistance to continue their education. So it is important for the government to immediately find a solution so that negative impacts on students can be minimized," he explained. The Ministry of Education and Culture, said Hetifah, must also communicate with registrants. According to him, KIPK registrants need to be given clear and transparent information about this situation, including the estimated delay times and steps taken to overcome this problem. The legislator for the East Kalimantan electoral district reminded that the government must also ensure that the leaked data is not misused, and mitigation measures must be implemented immediately. "This data leak also requires an increase in personal data protection to prevent misuse," he said.

Overall, Hetifah added, the PDN Down server incident also shows that the urgent need to improve data security infrastructure and policies in government agencies, especially those that handle sensitive data such as KIPK registrants. Including regarding data back-ups. "This incident also serves as a reminder of the importance of good contingency planning in data management," said Hetifah.