JAKARTA, Sept 19 (Askume) – Indonesia’s tax agency is investigating an alleged data breach that exposed the taxpayer identification numbers of millions of Indonesians, including President Joko Widodo, his ministers and two of his sons.
There have been a number of cyber attacks on Indonesian companies and government agencies in the past few years, which experts blame on the government’s laxity in protecting personal data.
Cybersecurity expert Teguh Apriyanto posted a screenshot on the social media platform
Dwi Astuti, a tax agency official, said on Wednesday that the tax agency was investigating “information circulating about a data breach” but gave no details.
Askume could not immediately confirm the validity of the data leak. Jokowi said on Thursday that data thefts had also occurred in other countries and urged relevant authorities to mitigate the problem as quickly as possible, state news agency Antara reported.
Teguh told Askume that exposing taxpayers’ data could lead to targeted attacks by scammers that “may result in material or immaterial losses,” adding that it could also expose people’s income or transaction data.
The alleged breach follows a ransomware attack in June that disrupted several government services, including immigration and key airport operations, forcing the government to conduct an audit .
