Indonesia Suffering Massive Cyberattack (Worthy News Investigation)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JAKARTA (Worthy News) – Millions of people in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, faced more nail-biting moments Monday after an unprecedented cyberattack disrupted immigration, airport operations, scholarship services, and other government activities.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered an audit of government data centers, but that did not convince legislators who wondered why there were no backup systems for people’s data.
“There is really panic among people,” said Victoria, a representative of the Christian minority in the world’s largest Muslim nation of 282 million people. “I have to travel to Europe, but it’s impossible to apply for a visa now due to the data breaches,” added the church worker who uses only one name.
She said Christians, already facing difficulties due to their faith, fear that hackers could use data to get access to their bank accounts or change names on passports. “It’s just so stupid. The government did not make backups for the data of millions of citizens.”
Despite the attack, the government has decided against paying the $8 million ransom demanded by the Russian-linked hacker group LockBit 3.0, who said they have the data.
That worries Victoria, who recalled that immigration services were taken down for days and have yet to return to normal. Additionally, scholarship registration websites for about a million students were rendered inaccessible.
Only about 2 percent of the data have been salvaged, and the recovery process will only be completed in mid-August, admitted Communications Minister Budi Arie Setiadi.
LARGEST ON RECORD
While the largest in the country’s recent history, the latest reported computer breach in Indonesia followed at least 113 cases of personal data leaks in the last two years, according to digital rights group SAFEnet.
Among other targeted institutions are the Indonesian Strategic Intelligence Agency of the Indonesian Military and the Indonesian Automatic Finger Identification System of the National Police, Worthy News learned.
Officials said the data were compromised and “sold on the dark web.”
The hacker, operating under the alias Moonz Haxor, reportedly demanded a ransom of up to $7,000 for the compromised data in local currency.
Earlier, 15 million customers at a local bank saw their data leaked, and personal data from 105 million people was revealed after an alleged hack of SIM cards needed for cell phones.
However, Christians said the breach of nationally stored data has triggered a crisis of confidence in Indonesia’s ability to protect its citizens’ information.
While unable to secure its own network, Indonesian immigration officials still proudly announced they had been arresting 103 Taiwan passport holders on suspicion of running a cybercrime operation out of the island of Bali.
TAIWAN DOUBTFUL
However, Taiwan said it had been told that only around 14 of its citizens were involved.
Last week’s raid was the most significant arrest this year, the Immigration agency announced.
Bali immigration director Saffar Muhammad Godam told reporters that authorities would soon deport the Taiwan passport holders after arresting them in a sting operation at a villa in Bali’s Tabanan district.
“The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers.
Those arrested were also suspected of misusing their visas, he added. Yet these detentions did little to convince worried Indonesian residents that their data were safe.
“I understand if a small shop doesn’t always backup its data. But I thought Indonesia was not a shop,” Victoria told Worthy News.
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