Indonesia was forced to review its digital technology strategy and bolster its cybersecurity in the wake of a recent hack that severely affected the nation’s data system.
The government has been pushed to fortify its cybersecurity and review its digital technology policy in the wake of the recent incident that severely crippled Indonesia’s national data system. Hadi Tjahjanto, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, declared on Friday that the country would enhance digital security and fortify the national data center’s system capacities, according to sources.
We are building the data center with the capacity for several layers of backups and strong security. We desire a system that is impenetrable to hackers. In a conference, Tjahjanto stated, “This will continue to be done to support the government’s performance in serving the public.” The Ministry of Communication and Informatics in Indonesia is getting ready to implement a plan known as “tenant redeploy,” which would strengthen digital security in governance through more stringent SOPs. According to Ismail, the ministry’s director general of informatics applications, “we’ll execute it from August to September 2024,” he stated on Thursday.
The hacker first demanded an $8 million ransom for the ransomware attack, which began on June 17 and affected Indonesia’s national data center, resulting in a catastrophic data catastrophe. The National Cyber and Encryption Agency and the Ministry of Communication and Informatics report that the hack affected at least 282 institutions, including the immigration services, which resulted in lengthy lines at airports because of system delays at the immigration checkpoints. The nation was in the midst of a student enrollment session in advance of the upcoming academic year when the incident occurred, which further interrupted educational institutions.
According to reports, the inability of the Indonesian Minister of Communication and Informatics to protect the public’s data led to a large number of citizens calling for his resignation after the occurrence. As the Indonesian institution most susceptible to hackers, the financial sector is constantly strengthening its cybersecurity capabilities to foresee the possibility of cyberattacks. This includes doing everything from meeting cybersecurity standards to practicing against cyberattacks.
The Financial Services Authority of Indonesia, a government body tasked with policing and overseeing the financial services industry, unveiled cybersecurity recommendations on Tuesday that are intended to assist all financial sector innovators in the nation. By placing a high priority on cooperation and information sharing, the guidelines offer a cyber capacity-building program that covers data security, risk management, incident response, maturity assessment, training, and awareness. In the meantime, the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII) said that it was getting ready to establish a task force with a cybersecurity focus, especially to guard against the unfavorable effects of rapidly advancing technical innovation.
APJII Chairman Muhammad Arif stated on Wednesday, “We want to gather existing related stakeholders to provide inputs to the government in any case, especially for cases related to cybersecurity.”
Additionally, he stated that APJII, which at the moment has 1,087 Internet service providers as members throughout Indonesia, had started to build support for preserving cyberspace security. Software specialist Ridi Ferdiana of the Faculty of Engineering at Gadjah Mada University in the Yogyakarta province of Indonesia stated that the current ransomware attack needs to serve as a wake-up call for the government to enhance the information system design, security protocols, and networks for computer security.
“There are several cybersecurity measures that can be taken to prevent the national data center server from being exposed to cyberattacks again, including developing routine inspection procedures related to security gaps, implementing network security procedures for the public and the data center, as well as conducting regular maintenance to review the security perimeter and suitability of procedures,” Ferdiana stated. In order to accelerate data recovery, he suggested that the government create a high-availability cloud infrastructure based on disaster recovery plans. “We also advise that the national data center implement encryption at the row field security or file level, either in transit or at rest, so that even in the event of ransomware, the stolen data cannot be read,” he stated.
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