Heaptalk, Jakarta — After several days of experiencing cyber attacks, the Indonesian government continues to perform multiple efforts to recover data lost at the National Data Center (PDN) due to a ransomware attack.
“The team from the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo), together with the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) and the National Police, as well as the PDN operator, have made efforts to recover the data. However, multiple strategic attempts failed to counter the ransomware attack from the hackers. The government has finally admitted failure in recovering the data stored in the PDN,” Telkom’s Director of Network and IT Solution, Herlan Wijanarko. (06/27)
Nevertheless, Herlan claimed that the encrypted data remains on the PDN server and has not been transferred elsewhere. Based on the matter, he believes that the data belonging to Ministries/Agencies and local governments will not leak or spread widely.
“According to the preliminary audit that BSSN conducted, the data is merely encrypted but remains in place. Currently, the PDN system has been isolated, with no external access allowed; we have cut off external access,” said Herlan.
Responding to Herlan’s statement, the Director General of Public Information and Communication of the Ministry of Tech, Usman Kansong, explained that the government will still not comply with the hacker’s demand for a ransom of USD9.8 billion, approximately Rp131 billion.
Furthermore, BSSN has also isolated and disconnected the PDN server network, preventing the hackers from accessing or extracting the data.
“The data has been secured and can no longer be tampered with, neither by the hackers nor by us, since we have closed access,” said Usman.
Consequently, the government has determined to resign to losing the data. There is no guarantee that the hackers will restore and not extract the data even if paid and given access to the PDN to unlock the encryption.
“Yes, it is just left inside. We have isolated it. It cannot be tampered with or taken by the hackers,” concluded Usman.
