Hackers’ shadow looms over Big Tech’s investments in Indonesia

In June, a massive ransomware attack on government entities in Indonesia—the country that’s been attracting billions of dollars in Big Tech investment—took down over 280 systems, including those of 30 central ministries and over a dozen provinces.

While it may take nearly a year to assess the damage that hackers wreaked on these systems, according to cybersecurity experts, the episode raises questions about safety and governance in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

The attack amounts to a “digital national disaster”, Ardi Sutedja, a Jakarta-based IT consultant and founder of the industry group, Indonesia Cyber Security Forum, told The Ken. This is at a time when companies such as Microsoft and Apple are seeking to add the world’s fourth most populous country to their supply chain, if not their consumer base.

Indonesia is also in the midst of a years-long effort to migrate public services online, and speed up processes such as applications for new passports as well as permits for starting businesses and holding big events.

It’s here that the problem lies—only 2% of the country’s data has been backed up.

In a massive blunder, state-owned telecommunications company Telkom, which manages the facility that was attacked, had been safeguarding government data using Microsoft’s free Windows Defender Firewall.

Even though hackers have repeatedly caused havoc and profited from the sale of this data, and ransomware attacks have become more brazen over time, little is being done to safeguard Indonesia’s data facilities.

Besides long lines at immigration, the attack also left some of the country’s spies with a black eye. Personnel records belonging to the Indonesian military’s Strategic Intelligence Agency (BIAS) are being sold on Breachforums, a hacker marketplace for buying and selling stolen data, for a mere US$1,000.

Once more into the breach

With its middling cybersecurity, data breaches are not new in Indonesia.

In 2023, in the run-up to the country’s presidential and legislative elections, a Breachforums user
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Voter Data Allegedly Leaked Again, KPU Urged for Forensic Audit
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Voter Data Allegedly Leaked Again, KPU Urged for Forensic Audit


nearly 500,000 pieces of general public’s data, including their full names, addresses, and identity numbers. This was done to prove that the hacker had access to some 205 million pieces of unique information gleaned from voter rolls held by the country’s General Elections Commission.