In Kazakhstan, the State Technical Service has discovered a leak of personal data of more than 2 million people comprising those who have ever been clients of the microfinance organization zaimer.kz.
The situation was immediately communicated to the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MDDIAI). Representatives of the ministry said that the data leak occurred from the platform Robo.finance, which contained the data of more than 3.6 million clients of various microfinance organizations.
IMDDIAI had the necessary competencies to notify citizens whose data may have been compromised through the state application eGov Mobile. Those notifications contained recommendations and instructions that seek to minimize the negative aftereffects of the data breach.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Finance asked citizens who received the notification, but have never been a client of the micro finance organization, to immediately contact the MDDIAI Information Security Committee. This is necessary in order to better understand the scope of the data breach and the punishment to be incurred by the guilty parties under Kazakh laws.
Before the discovery of the zaimer.kz breach, there was information on the Internet about the leakage of personal data through a spy program which was developed by a Chinese company.
Kazakhstan’s Unified National Pension Fund (EPPF) commented on this situation, specifying that a data leak involving citizens’ information from their database is impossible and has never occurred. Kazakhstan’s largest air carrier, Air Astana, also denied any data breach from their databases.
Currently the Ministry of Digital Development, together with the National Security Committee, are monitoring the situation.
