Disclaimer: This article is an editorial that highlights the problems in Indonesia today
PIKIRAN RAKYAT - The cyber attack of the LockBit 3.0 brain cipher ransomware has breached the crucial data of the Indonesian Temporary National Data Center (PDNS) 2 in Surabaya, reflecting the vulnerability of cyber data security conditions in the country.
The Indonesian government is considered to be far too careless, simplifying the issue by claiming it as some sort of error. They were expected to be more transparent in recognizing and admitting the weaknesses of the backup data, which is an important factor in the recovery of a system.
Ransomware is malware that can lock computer data with encryption. In most cases around the world, the cybercriminal will blackmail the victim into paying a sum of ransom they had asked for. In the attack that happened to PDNS 2 last week, the ransomware locked the data and asked for a ransom of USD 8 million, or approximately 131,2 million Rupiah.
Information and Technology Surveyor, Christianto Tjahyadi, predicts that the scale of this ransomware attack can result in an immeasurable impact exceeding 131,2 million Rupiah. The attack happened for a span of one week, and yet it has not fully recovered until now. The impacts would not be as severe if there were adequate backup data available.
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“What must be underlined here is that such breaching incidents have happened repeatedly. This one is the most severe so far. I think it’s scary,” said Christianto to Pikiran Rakyat on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Christianto argued that this repeated incident reflects the vulnerability of Indonesia’s cyber security and backup data. The attack has successfully shut down the National Data Center (PDN) for a few days, and it is still not fully recovered until now.