STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT. The government said that the disruption to the Temporary National Data Center (PDNS) in Surabaya, which began on lately Thursday, was caused by a cyberattack on destructive hardware or brain cipher ransomware, a variant of LockBit 3.0.
The government is focused on recovery, while ignoring the hacker’s ransom demand of $8 million. National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) Chief Hinsa Siburian said Monday that the agency, in collaboration with Communications and Information Ministry (Kominfo) Telkom-siaga, and Lintasarta, is investigating and trying to break the encryption that made data inaccessible.
Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly announced that the immigration system has not yet recovered following the hacking of the National Data Center (PDN).
As an emergency measure, immigration services have been temporarily moved to Amazon Web Services (AWS). “Yes, we were forced to migrate to AWS for now. While waiting for the PDN to be repaired, we needed an emergency solution, so we are using Amazon first,” said Yasonna. Yasonna said he does not yet know when the immigration system will transition back from AWS, as PDN awaits repairs.
Communications and Information Minister Budi Arie Setiadi said the government would not pay the $8 million demanded by attackers of the Temporary National Data Center (PDNS) 2, noting that PDNS 2 can currently be accessed. He said the government will evaluate the attack and continue to protect public data.
Communications and Information Ministry Director General Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan said that there were 210 agencies at national and regional levels affected by the ransomware attack on the National Data Center (PDN) system. He said that among the 210 agencies, the Immigration Directorate of the Law and Human Rights Ministry was the most affected one.
As immigration clearance, passport application and other government services in Indonesia are restored after a national data breach, experts warn that the country’s reputation will take huge hits if such incidents keep happening.
