Security expert questions plan to restrict anonymous access to officials’ declarations

Security expert has voiced scepticism about a proposal to restrict access to public officials’ declarations to users who verify their identity, LSM reported. Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs of the United List raised the idea after a data leak at the Road Traffic Safety Directorate, or CSDD.

The declarations contain information about officials’ property, financial assets and relatives. Kulbergs said combining the stolen CSDD data with publicly available declarations and other databases could make it possible to identify security service and police employees, other officials and their families.

He said this could pose a threat to the security of the state and the officials concerned. The proposal is intended to protect Latvian officials from the attention of hostile foreign countries.

The data leak involved information on 1.2 million residents and about 200,000 legal entities. The incident raised concerns that the data could be combined with other information and used to target people, including through convincing fraudulent calls, emails or text messages.

The security expert told Latvian Radio that access to officials’ declarations should not be made more complicated.