About 20 million sets of personal information on elderly Thai people have been leaked from the Department of Older Persons, in the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, and put up for sale on the Dark Web.
The massive leak was first reported on January 22nd by Resecurity, an American cyber security company based in Los Angeles, and this has now been confirmed by Anukul Peedkaew, permanent secretary of social development and human security.
The Department of Older Persons has already filed a complaint with Thai cyber police and the Committee for the Protection of Personal Information and data security experts are examining how the information was leaked, either by individuals with access or hackers.
The personal information includes names and ID card numbers, phone numbers, e-mails, salaries and pictures of the individuals.
Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, a Move Forward party-list MP, posted on the party’s Facebook page that the massive leak is very worrisome, adding that it remains unknown, at this stage, how the data was accessed.
He noted that the data could have been leaked when a state agency hired a private firm to develop an online application. He suggested that the government speed up the “Cloud First” policy, which could prevent data leaks.
