More than 20, 000 candidates’ information leaked
The Election Commission (EC ) is looking into the leak of personal information from more than 20 000 Senate election candidates.
The information was leaked in file formats shortly after the district-level voting in the Senate election on June 9 according to EC Secretary-general Sawaeng Boonmee.
” The information was leaked from a company that entered the system,” the statement reads. We are working with the National Cyber Security Agency]NCSA ] to prevent further data breaches leaking confidential information of applicants”, he said.
” We are even looking into a company’s potential leaker,” the statement read. Because the organization may not have been aware of the leaking, it will not be able to disclose its name.
” Additionally, the company cooperated with and supported the EC in the region- level Senate vote,” Mr Sawaeng said.
Since the general election next year, Air Vice Marshal Amorn Chomchoey, the NCSA’s secretary-general, said his organization and the EC have now put in place measures to stop a database of candidates ‘ private data from being hacked into.
He said that the NCSA and the EC will have to look into whether some bureau officials were responsible for the leaks.
On Wednesday, two Senate election candidates, Kengkaj Kupakrapinyo and Wanna Horkanya, filed a complaint with the EC, asking it to check leaks of private information of candidates who won in the region- level voting in the Senate election.
Mr Wanna said that soon after voting ended, the personal information of more than 23, 000 applicants, including the 13- decimal number of their ID cards, was leaked and spread on talk groups on the Line program.
According to Mr. Wanna, this was against the Personal Data Protection Act, adding that all district-level candidates could access the data that was stored in Excel file format.
He added that he also requested that the Office of the Personal Data Protection Commission ( PDPC ) under the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society investigate the matter if personal data is handed over to criminals. This will harm the applicants, he said.
The PDPC stated on Facebook on Thursday   that it has asked the EC to explain the situation and that it has urged anyone who has received leaked data to stop sharing it.
The PDPC stated that the office would keep an eye on any data breaches and make improvements to safeguarding personal information.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sawaeng claimed yesterday that the EC has not yet created a contingency plan for issues that may arise following the Constitutional Court’s decision to decide whether or not the four contentious organic law provisions of the Senate election process will be governed by the results of the election process on Tuesday.
” We will have to wait and see and decide what to do next after the court’s ruling,” Mr Sawaeng said.
At the centre of the controversy are Sections 36, 40 ( 3 ), 41 ( 3 ) and 42 ( 3 ) of the Senate election law. The candidates ‘ self-introduction is a part of Section 36, while the other three deal with voting at the district, provincial, and national levels at the same group and across professional groups.
The Constitutional Court stated that it had the necessary information to decide on Tuesday following the election.
The EC is anticipated to continue with the provincial-level voting for the Senate election on Sunday, where 23, 645 aspirants will be whittled down to about 3, 000 for the final vote.
Candidates for Senate election on June 5 requested that the court consider petitions asking for a decision regarding the four provisions ‘ legality.
However, the court did not issue any injunction, finding it did not foresee any serious repercussions from the Senate poll proceeding.
The EC, which is in charge of holding the election, is now able to intervene to fix any issues, the court added.