Telkomsel Employee Arrested for Data Theft

Jakarta. A man who works at the customer service unit of state-owned telecommunication company Telkomsel was arrested for allegedly stealing personal data of social media sensation Denny Siregar, police said on Friday.

The suspect is identified by initials F.P.H., 27, who works at Telkomsel’s Grapari office in Surabaya, East Java.

“He has access to personal data of Telkomsel customers,” Chief Comr. Reinhard Hutagaol, a senior investigator at the National Police’s cyber crime unit, told reporters in Jakarta.

He said the suspect is an outsourced worker at Grapari with limited access to the company’s data server.

Police charged him under the Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law and he could face up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

The suspect took a picture of Denny’s personal data and published it on Twitter account @opposite6890, the officer said. 

“He simply doesn’t like Denny,” Reinhard said.

Denny welcomed the arrest and praised the police for their quick response.

"I’m pleased to hear that the police have finally arrested the culprit inside Telkomsel who uploaded my data to the Twitter account. I thank police for their quick response. It comes to my relief because now we know that there is an insider in the company who compromised customers’ data," Denny said.

Telkomsel, the country’s biggest cellphone operator and among the world’s top eight with more than 100 million customers, apologized to Denny for the incident.

"We apologize to Mr. Denny Siregar for the inconvenience resulting from this incident. Telkomsel continuously works to make sure our customers’ personal data is well-secured. We have learned from this to improve our data security system,” Telkomsel Vice President Corporate Secretary Andi Agus Akbar was quoted by news website Detik as saying. 

Andi said the company immediately ran an internal investigation upon learning that Denny’s personal data had been compromised.

"We detected illegal access from one of our Grapari outlets," Andi said, adding that the company had promptly notified the police.

Denny, a die-hard supporter of President Joko Widodo, has mostly posted opinions on politics, including many remarks very critical of hardline Muslim groups.

Most recently, he published a controversial post alleging that Islamic boarding school students participating in last year’s Jakarta rally can potentially become terrorists, accompanied by a photograph of young Muslim students.

An Islamic group in West Java, the Tasikmalaya Mujahedeen Forum, lodged a police complaint in protest to Denny’s post. Part of their complaint mentions that Denny had used their photograph without consent.