Brinztech Alert: Student Database of Indonesian School SMP Negeri 2 Kalimanah Leaked

Dark Web News Analysis: SMP Negeri 2 Kalimanah School Database Leaked

A database allegedly belonging to SMP Negeri 2 Kalimanah, a public junior high school in Indonesia, has been leaked on a hacker forum. The breach is particularly severe as it exposes the sensitive personal information of minors and appears to use a dangerously outdated method for password protection. The leaked data contains specific tables for student records (tb_siswa) and user credentials (tb_user), providing a toolkit for criminals to target the school’s community. The compromised information reportedly includes:

• Student Information (tb_siswa): Full names, national student identification numbers (NISN), and class information.
• User Credentials (tb_user): Email addresses and passwords hashed with the obsolete MD5 algorithm.

Key Cybersecurity Insights

A data breach impacting a school is a critical event, and the use of obsolete security practices like MD5 hashing turns a serious situation into a catastrophic one.

• Use of MD5 Hashing is a Catastrophic Security Failure: The MD5 hashing algorithm has been considered cryptographically broken for more than a decade and should never be used for storing passwords. Storing passwords for a database containing children’s information using MD5 is a grossly negligent security practice. These passwords can be cracked in seconds, making them as good as plaintext and guaranteeing successful account takeovers.
• A Critical Breach Targeting a Highly Vulnerable Population of Minors: The leak exposes the detailed personal information of junior high school students. This data can be used by malicious actors for a wide range of dangerous activities, including long-term identity theft that can affect the children for their entire lives, highly targeted scams against their parents, and potential online harassment or exploitation.
• Enables Targeted Scams Against the Entire School Community: With a list of students, their classes, and the credentials of teachers and staff, criminals can launch highly credible phishing and social engineering attacks. They can send fake “tuition payment overdue” notices to parents or fraudulent IT support emails to teachers to steal more credentials and gain deeper access to the school’s network.

Critical Mitigation Strategies

The school administration must act with extreme urgency to contain this breach and protect its students, while parents and staff must be on high alert.

• For SMP Negeri 2 Kalimanah: Immediately Investigate and Secure All Accounts: The school administration must immediately launch a full investigation to confirm the breach. The most urgent step is to force a mandatory password reset for every single student and staff account and to immediately upgrade their password storage system from MD5 to a modern, salted hashing algorithm like Argon2 or bcrypt.
• For the School: Implement Fundamental Security Measures: The school needs to conduct a thorough vulnerability assessment to find and fix the flaw that led to the breach. Implementing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), at least for all staff and administrative accounts, is a critical step to prevent future account takeovers, even if passwords are leaked again.
• For Parents, Students, and Staff: Be on Maximum Alert for Scams: The entire school community must be warned about this breach. Parents and students must be on high alert for phishing scams. It is also crucial for every user to immediately change any password that they may have reused on other online platforms (such as social media, email, or gaming accounts).

Secure Your Organization with Brinztech As a cybersecurity provider, we can protect your business from the threats discussed here. Contact us to learn more about our services.

Questions or Feedback? For expert advice, use our ‘Ask an Analyst’ feature. For general inquiries or to report this post, please email us: contact@brinztech.com