A year-end report from the Communications and Information Technology Ministry has revealed that Indonesia was the world’s most targeted country for cyber attack in 2013. Minister Tifatul Sembiring told reporters at his office in Jakarta on Friday that this year Indonesia saw more than 1.2 million cyber attacks, or a
A year-end report from the Communications and Information Technology Ministry has revealed that Indonesia was the world's most targeted country for cyber attack in 2013.
Minister Tifatul Sembiring told reporters at his office in Jakarta on Friday that this year Indonesia saw more than 1.2 million cyber attacks, or approximately 42,000 attacks a day. The United States ranks second for the 332,000 attacks they were hit with, he said.
For Tifatul, this number highlights the poor state of national Internet security.
“Hackers usually aim to break into government and university websites and our politicians' social media accounts,” he said. “And 70% of these attacks, which ranged from phishing to malware, were [from] locals.”
According to Tifatul, this is one of the negative impacts of having a growing number of Indonesians with Internet access. Last year, the Indonesian Association of Internet Service Providers (APJII) announced that 63 million Indonesians, or 24% of the population used the Internet regularly. This year, the number has increased to 74 million.
Information security in Indonesia came into the spotlight recently after The Guardian reported in November that Australia tried to monitor the mobile phones of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife, Ani.
Tifatul noted that although wiretapping did not fall under the category of cyber attacks, his ministry was working with the National Encryption Body (Lemsaneg) to create a safe communication tunnel for top officials, including the president.