Careful! Print COVID-19 Vaccine Certificate With Potential Data Leakage For Pinjol, The Most Crucial NIK

Ilustrasi (Raga Granada / YOU)

JAKARTA - Currently, a COVID-19 vaccine certificate has become a requirement to enter public places such as shopping centers or malls. However, that does not mean printing certificates without the risk of being used for online loans (borrowing). Why the most crucial NIK must be maintained?

According to cybersecurity expert Alfons Tanujaya, printing vaccine certificates, which is currently a trend in Indonesia, risks causing personal data leakage. "Printing vaccine certification needs attention because it contains the potential for leakage of important demographic data that can harm the data owner. The important population data are NIK, Full Name and Date of Birth," said Alfons in an official statement received by VOI, Thursday 12 August.

Alfons explained that population information is used as a credential basis for checking databases of many government services, such as recapitulation of voter data in elections.

What must be considered is the proliferation of vaccine certificate printing services, this happens for practical reasons as a condition for visiting malls or shopping centers. That way, visitors don't have to show a certificate on their phone.

"But because not everyone has a printer, the vaccine certificate is sent to the printer service. The printer service automatically gets a collection of NIK population data, Full Name and Date of Birth which is valuable and has the potential to be misused, such as to make asphalt ID cards which will later be used for many malicious activities. such as opening a bank account that holds the proceeds of crime or borrowing," explained Alfons.

Illustration of vaccination (Source: Antara)

Alfons emphasized, that's why the public must be extra careful in protecting their data as much as possible. "It is also good if the PeduliLindung application considers covering up population information in this vaccine certificate as the JAKI application does," he said.

Crucial

Actually, said Alfons, separately, this population information may be less meaningful. For example, only the date of birth or name leaked without any other data, so the data for the date of birth or name alone is quite difficult to exploit.

"But the NIK number is a dark horse, because singly it has high data value because it is unique and difficult to create, because it is a combination of several population data such as the location code of the ID card owner, date of birth and other additional information," said Alfons.

This NIK number is attached to the population and is valid for life, combined with other demographic data such as full name or date of birth, then this information becomes valuable data and is vulnerable to exploitation and must be protected properly.

Pinjol illustration. (VOI DOC)

The proactive vaccine certificate checking method using a smartphone application for QR Code scanners at malls or restaurants is recommended and is quite safe from the security side because it can prevent data leakage.

In addition, data that enters the PeduliLindung application if processed properly will become valuable Big Data and can be used for other purposes such as tracking, monitoring the discipline of malls or restaurants running PPKM and not exceeding the maximum allowable visitor limit.

"Printing vaccine certificates is not recommended, let alone printed using third party services because it contains the potential for leakage of population data, especially NIK which is unique and is attached to the population for life. If you are forced to print vaccine certificates, it is highly recommended to close important population information on the vaccine certificate so as not to used for certain purposes such as pinjol," explained Alfons.