Indonesian President Joko Widodo ordered on Friday an audit of government data centers after officials said the bulk of data affected by a recent ransomware cyberattack was not backed up, Reuters reported.
Last week’s cyberattack, media described as the worst in Indonesia in recent years, has disrupted multiple government services including immigration and operations at major airports, according to the report.
The government has said more than 230 public agencies, including ministries, had been affected, but has refused to pay an $8 million ransom demanded to retrieve the encrypted data.
In response to the cyberattack, Indonesia’s state auditor said the president instructed it to examine the country’s data centers.
The audit would cover “governance and the financial aspect”, said Muhammad Yusuf Ateh, who heads Indonesia’s Development and Finance Controller (BPKP), after attending a cabinet meeting led by Widodo on Friday.
Hinsa Siburian, an official who chairs Indonesia’s cyber security agency known by its acronym BSSN, has said 98 percent of the government data stored in one of the two compromised data centers had not been backed up, the report added
“Generally we see the main problem is governance and there is no back-up,” he told a parliamentary hearing late on Thursday.
Budi Arie Setiadi, Indonesia’s communications minister, said the ministry had back-up capacity at the data centers, but it was optional for government agencies to use the service.
He said government agencies did not back up the data due to budget constraints, adding this would soon be made mandatory.
Ransomware attackers use software to encrypt data and demand payment from victims for restoring the data. Indonesia said the attacker in this particular incident used an existing malicious software called Lockbit 3.0 the report added.
More than 40 Indonesian agencies hit by cyberattack on data centers – report
