[ad_1]
JAKARTA: Calls for the resignation of Indonesian Minister of Communications and Informatics Budi Ali Setiadi are growing following a ransomware attack on the country’s national data center that affected 239 institutions, including 30 government ministries and agencies.
Last week, the Southeast Asian Free Expression Network (SAFEnet), a Bali-based civil society group, launched a petition on Change.org calling for Budi to step down, which has collected more than 18,000 signatures.
The petition states that Mr. Buddy should be held accountable for the cybersecurity breach.
SAFEnet executive director Nenden Sekar Arum also claimed that Budi received the title because he supported President Joko Widodo when he ran for president in 2014 and 2019.
“Don’t continue to ‘give away’ like this… This role is a very strategic position, especially because we cannot break away from the digital world,” Ms Nenden was quoted as saying by news outlet Kompas last Thursday (June 27).
Mr Budi was the chairman of Projo, a volunteer group set up in 2013 to encourage and support Mr Widodo’s presidential bid.
In 2019, Jokowi appointed Budi as Deputy Minister of Rural, Poor Area Development and Migration, and in June 2023 he was appointed Minister of Communications and Information.
According to his ministry’s website, Mr. Budi graduated in communication science from the University of Indonesia and did postgraduate studies in social development management.
Mr Budi declined to comment on the petition. “No comment on it. It is the people’s right to express their opinions,” he was quoted as saying by news outlet Liputan6.
However, Projo said in a statement that the petition was politically motivated. The group said it was launched by factions opposed to Prabowo Subianto’s candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. Prabowo was widely seen as the candidate who had Jokowi’s support in the February election and won by a landslide.
“From the team’s monitoring, the person (behind the petition) is a political opponent in the 2024 presidential election,” Projo secretary-general Handoko was quoted as saying by news website Kumparan on Sunday (June 30).
However, Ms Nenden of SAFEnet denied there were any political motives behind the petition. “(Mr Budi’s performance) has a direct impact on the public. Political issues are secondary because this is in the public interest,” she said.
Last month’s ransomware attack was Indonesia’s worst in recent years, resulting in data loss, disruption of public data access and slowdown of online services at affected institutions.
Indonesian authorities said the attack was carried out using software developed by the Russian ransomware group LockBit.
The affected national data center stores important information, including demographic data such as names, addresses, personal identification numbers and family data. It also stores industry-specific information, such as national health plans and education curriculum.
The attack also disrupted immigration services, including online applications for visas, residence permits and passports. On June 21, long queues formed at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport as passport checks had to be done manually after the automated system failed.
Indonesia’s immigration chief, Silmi Karim, said on Friday that the agency’s systems had been fully restored, but he said some of the agency’s data had not been fully restored.
The government did not announce the ransomware attack until June 24, and revealed the extent of the attack during a working meeting with House members in Budi on June 27.
Budi said the Indonesian government refused to pay the $8 million ransom demanded by the hackers to restore the encrypted data.
The ransomware attack also exposed Indonesia’s cyber vulnerabilities.
Hinsa Siburian, chairman of Indonesia’s cybersecurity agency BSSN, said 98% of the data stored in the damaged data center was not backed up.
“Overall, we believe the main problem is governance and there is no support,” he said at a parliamentary hearing on June 27, according to Reuters.
Some lawmakers questioned his comments. Meutya Hafid, the chairman of a committee overseeing the incident, said: “If there is no backup, it is not a lack of governance, it is stupidity.”
Widodo has ordered an audit of government data centers.
[ad_2]
Source link
