A cyber attacker compromised Indonesia’s national data center, disrupting immigration checks at airports, and asked for an $8 million ransom, the country’s communications minister told Reuters on Monday.
The attack was the latest in a series of cyber-attacks to hit Indonesian companies and government agencies in the past few years.
Last year, media reported that account details of 15 million customers of the country’s biggest Islamic lender Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) (BRIS.JK), opened a new tab and were published online. The bank did not confirm its data had been leaked.
The government has said more than 230 public agencies, including ministries, had been affected, but has refused to pay an $8 million ransom demanded to retrieve the encrypted data.
How to prevent the incident from reoccurring
We must be aware that there is no safe place for all digital infrastructure,” said Nezar, quoted from the official Kominfo website, Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Nezar said the government will accelerate digital transformation going forward. The ransomware attack will not deter the government from carrying out efforts to strengthen Indonesia’s cyber security during the digital transformation process. He also apologized to the public for the cyber-attack on PDNS and admitted that the system was weak. Kominfo will make efforts to restore the system. “This attack that has occurred shows weakness.
An official who chairs Indonesia’s cyber security agency known by its acronym BSSN, has said 98% of the government data stored in one of the two compromised data centers had not been backed up.
This attack should be a warning for the government to immediately improve security and ensure that every agency that uses Data Centers has a robust and standardized business continuity plan
