The wiretapping scandal involving former police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo allegedly misusing an official interception system has raised concerns over gaps in surveillance technology safeguards as well as the vulnerability of private communication and data. The National Police has named Listyo and two other generals Ahrie Sonta Nasution and Eko Hadi Santoso as suspects for unlawful use of the police’s Lawful Interception Management System (LIMS) to bug President Prabowo Subianto and several state officials since last year.
They allegedly entered phone numbers into the system without proper authorization and investigation warrants and deleted the log in October. Legally used as a surveillance tool, LIMS relays interception requests from police investigators to telecommunications operators. It then duplicates the target’s communications from the network, including mobile phone conversations and unencrypted standard text messages, and forwards them to a monitoring center.
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Some experts say it can also collect metadata from messaging applications such as the widely used WhatsApp, including phone numbers and call durations, but not the content of encrypted messages and calls. Technology analyst Wahyudi Djafar of Catalyst Policy Works think tank said LIMS is a conventional tool with limited capabilities, compared to many sophisticated spyware available on the market. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning.
Delivered straight to your inbox three times weekly, this curated briefing provides a concise overview of the day’s most important issues, covering a wide range of topics from politics to culture and society. Please check your email for your newsletter subscription. But the system could still expose a target’s location and other sensitive information, he said, particularly given the high profile public officials targeted in the case.
