The Ministry of Internal Affairs has formed a new specialised department to combat cybercrime.
According to Polisia.kz, the initiative was prompted by growing threats in the field of countering cybercrime. It is reported that the department will be responsible for identifying and solving such crimes, as well as developing strategic steps to combat them.
"In the context of the rapid development of technology and the increasing number of internet threats, the creation of a specialised unit will allow us to respond more effectively to the challenges of our time," – emphasised the Minister of Internal Affairs, Yerzhan Sadenov.
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs introduced the personnel to the head of the new department - Police Colonel Zhandos Suiyenbai.
Recall that in March, Kazakh citizens were informed about a leak of their personal data in the EgovMobile application. Notifications were also received by those who had never taken out loans from microfinance organisations.
Shortly before this, there was a massive leak of internal data at the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China. Files containing confidential conversations and operational data were posted in the public domain on the GitHub hosting service. Among the published files, private data of subscribers of Kazakh mobile operators Beeline, Altel, Tele2, Kcell and Kazakhtelecom was also found.
It was also reported that among the leaked files, information from the UAPF from 2019 and data on passengers of the airline "Air Astana" were discovered.
The Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry conducted unscheduled inspections at Kazakhtelecom JSC, the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF) JSC, and Air Astana JSC for compliance with information security requirements. As a result, Kazakhtelecom and Air Astana were brought to administrative responsibility and given one year to rectify the violations.
However, according to Informburo.kz, Air Astana stated that the directive from the Ministry of Digital Development to rectify the violations is in no way connected with issues of protecting clients' personal data. Moreover, the airline assured that "passenger data was not compromised."