Recently, the public was shocked by the news that around 279 million personal data of Indonesian citizens had been leaked.
Personal data includes information about KTP, NIK, cellphone numbers to e-mails. Data leakage cases like this are actually not new.
In April, Facebook was also reported to have experienced the same problem in which 533 million user data was leaked.
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So, what are the risks of leaking personal data? How dangerous is it if the data gets in the hands of irresponsible people?
Serious Risks If Your Personal Data Leaks
1. Used to log into services such as digital wallets
Services such as OVO and GoPay are some of the many digital wallets that are widely used which, unfortunately, are also vulnerable to being used by hackers to carry out their actions.
Breaking into such services is not difficult where hackers only need to know the victim's cellphone number, then ask for an OTP code or One Time Password.
Usually, in carrying out the action, hackers claim to be employees of related services and then ask for a new OTP code sent via SMS for security reasons or so on.
2. Used to borrow money "illegally"
Apart from breaking into digital wallet accounts, leaked cellphone numbers can also be used by hackers to pretend to be the owner of the real number.
These cases often occur where the perpetrator uses the victim's cellphone number to do things such as borrow money from family members.
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In addition to cellphone numbers, leaked KTPs are also prone to be misused to apply for loans or online loans in applications or services that have poor security systems.
This is certainly very detrimental to victims where one day they will be blamed for something they did not do.
3. Breaking social media accounts
It is not difficult to break into social media accounts if the hacker already knows the victim's email address and other important information, especially the date of birth.
Hackers can guess the passwords or passwords for their victim's social media accounts and, if lucky, may find out that the victim's date of birth is the password.
Therefore, it is strongly recommended not to use personal information such as date of birth, place of birth, cellphone number and the like for use as social media passwords.
4. Traded on the dark web
Watch out, these are some serious risks if your personal data is leaked
The dark web is a place where many illegal activities take place, including buying and selling personal data.
The data that is sold can then be used for many things ranging from fraud, extortion, theft of money without the knowledge of the original owner and phishing.
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Unfortunately, some are widely used for doxing or reveal the identity of a certain person to the public with negative purposes, for example to bring down or humiliate that person.
Personal data that is traded on the dark web are usually priced in the price range of tens of thousands to millions of rupiah, depending on how "good" the data is.
5. Tips to avoid leakage of personal data
100% avoiding personal data being leaked may be very difficult because it is beyond the user's control, but there are a number of things that can be done to anticipate this.
One of the most important things is to avoid sharing personal information in detail, especially on social media as much as possible.
Completing a social media profile is necessary but it's good to just be moderate. Next, change passwords for various services periodically and use 2FA or Two Factor Authentication for multiple layers of security.
Finally, don't easily believe the links shared via email or SMS and ignore calls from foreign numbers, especially those that suddenly ask for an OTP code.
Final Words
That was a little review about the risks of personal data being leaked and misused.
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Hopefully the information above can help you find out how dangerous it is if personal data is leaked and avoid the actions of irresponsible individuals.
