Cyber Attacks in Indonesia: Types, Targets, and Preventions

According to Indonesia Security Incident Response Team on Internet and Infrastructure/Coordination Center (Id-SIRTII/CC), there are about 89 million attacks that occurred during the first half of 2014 with the domination by malware attacks as much as 46.3 million attacks.[1] The same research found 6,000 successfully irritated hacker website incidents and found almost 16,000 security holes on the websites in Indonesia. Indonesian Ministry of Defense released that Cyber-attacks are any measures whether done intentionally or unintentionally by any party, which is targeted at electronic systems or their contents (information) and equipment that are highly dependent on technology and networks of any scale, which threatens the country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and safety of the nation.[2] Everyone representing the government (State Actor) or Non Govermental Organization (Non-State Actor) is able to carry out the attacks so that the perpetrators can be an individual, group, class, organization or even a country. The entire society needs to anticipate threats and cyber attacks that occur. Preparedness and responsiveness in the face of threats to foster the ability to recover the impact of the cyber attack. Cyber attacks can threaten ideology, political, economic, social, cultural, nationalism, military, science, and technology as well as other related aspects of the life of the nation, the state, and society, including personal interests. With the increase of cyber attack today, then people need to know the type of threats, attacks’ targets and how to overcome them, in order to protect the state and nation’s assets of effects that can occur in the future.

Some of the types of threats that appear in the activities of cyber attack are quite varied. Broadly speaking, cyber threats can be categorized into two major groups, cyber war, and cyber violence. First, Cyber war is all acts carried deliberate and coordinated with the purpose of disrupting the country’s sovereignty. Cyber war may be a terrorist attack (cyber terrorism) and espionage (cyber espionage) that interfere with national security. The cyber attack has a characteristic that is intentional (deliberate), active, and a large scale. Second, Cyber Disorders (Cyber ​​Violence), is a cyber attack that has characteristics that unintentional, passive, and small scale.

In addition to the threat, the public also needs to consider the target of cyber attacks. Based on the goals and targets, we face cyber attacks directed to individuals, national infrastructure, and national interests. The attacks on individuals, communities, organizations, certain communities are usually aimed to foment unrest, fear, violence, chaos, and conflict. Furthermore, attacks on places of National Critical Infrastructure, which aims to control the system remotely. This activity can weaken the defense or security as well as the nation’s economy. Another objective is the national interest, on all aspects related to the national objectives, the symbol/symbols of the state, state politics and the interests of the nation.

There are several steps to deal with the threats and protect the country from becoming the target of cyber attack. The countermeasures activities of cyber attack use an approach that adjusts to the sources and forms of attack faced. The cyber attack prevention can be carried out as cyber defense, legal actions, and counter-attacks. The first step is cyber defense, an attempt to tackle cyber attack which led to the disruption of normal operation of the state. The second step is legal actions. People can coordinate with relevant security forces if they find or know the perpetrators of cyber crime. The third step is cyber counter-attack, an act of counter-attack against the source of intrusions with the aim of providing a deterrent effect against perpetrators of cyber attacks.

By knowing the types of threats, attack’s targets and the response to the above, we should be able to have the readiness and responsiveness in the face of cyber attack. Prevention efforts in the form of cyber defense, cyber remedies or counter-attack should be able to cope with all the cyber threat in the category of large or small, individually-targeted, or vital national interests. In the end, we must remember what Admiral Michael Mullen said, “The single biggest existential threat that’s out there, I think, is cyber.”[3]

[1] Internet Traffic Data in 2014. ID-SIRTII, 2014. 27 March 2017. http://www.idsirtii.or.id/tahunan/tahun/2014.html

[2]Ministry of Defense’s Regulation  No 82/2014 : Cyber Defense. Ministry of Defense, 2014.

[3] “Michael Mullen.” BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2017. 27 March 2017. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/michaelmul516777.html