A hacking organization has penetrated Indonesia's National Data Center and demanded a $8 million ransom, but the government has stated that it would not pay the amount.

According to Samuel Abrijani Pangerapan, director general of informatics applications at the Communications and Informatics Ministry, cyberattacks have damaged more than 200 government services at the regional and national levels since last Thursday.    

Also, certain government services have resumed--immigration services at airports and elsewhere are now operational--but work to restore other services, such as investment licenses, are ongoing, Pangerpan told reporters.

According to Herlan Wijanarko, director of network & IT solutions at PT Telkom Indonesia, the attackers kept the data captive and offered a key for access in exchange for the $ 8 million ransom.

Wijanarko also informed us that the company, in partnership with domestic and international authorities, is examining investment opportunities and attempting to breach encryption, which renders data unavailable. Budi Arie Setaidi, the Minister of Communication and Informatics, also informed reporters.    

Also, “we have tried our best to carry out recovery while the National Cyber and Crypto Agency is currently carrying out forensics. “Added Setiadi. Also, the head of that agency, Hinsa Siburja, also said that they had detected samples of the lock bit 3.8 ransomware.    

The group that attacked Indonesia’s data center was also responsible for a quarter of all ransomware attacks around the world last year and has extorted over $ 1 billion from thousands of victims globally, as per the UK government.   

Moreover, as per Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency,  the top countries that were hit by cyberattacks were Britain, the US, Germany, France, and China; speaking about Indonesia cybersecurity, it has  a weak cybersecurity record, with poor online literacy and also the frequent leaks.  

Also, in 2021, during the coronavirus, researchers for encryption provider vpnmentor revealed the data of around 1.3 million users of a government test and trace app had been compromised.  

The news came just months after the data of more than 200 million participants of the National Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) was allegedly leaked by hackers.   

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