Indonesia, a country with a population of 275.4 million as of June 2022, is one of the countries with the largest number of internet users in the world. We Are Social 2022, as quoted by GoodStats, reported that the number of internet users in the country reached 204.7 million. As of January 2022, the internet penetration rate was 73.3%, an increase of about 1.03% when compared to 2021.
Behind the increase in internet users in Indonesia, Cyber Crime is also increasing. A study from Surfshark, a Dutch digital security organization, states that Indonesia ranks 3rd in the world for countries with the highest data leakage.
Moving up the Data Leakage Rankings
In just three months, Indonesia’s position as the country with the most data leaks has increased from 8th to 3rd place. Indonesia is now even ranked higher than the superpower United States.
A total of 108.9 million Indonesian accounts were breached in July-September 2022 (Third Quarter). Indonesia’s contribution to data leakage in the world reached 12%. Meanwhile, the country with the highest data leakage in the world is Russia, second to China. Under Indonesia, there are Brazil and the United States.
Because of Bjorka
The jump in Indonesia’s ranking is none other than the result of Bjorka’s data leaking action. Bjorka’s popularity as a hacker jumped dramatically because he leaked a lot of important government and strategic company data in Indonesia.
What data did Bjorka leak?
- 26 million browsing history of IndiHome customers
- 105 million KPU data
- 679,180 mailing list data to the President of Indonesia
- Doxing public officials such as the Minister of Communication and Information, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minister of BUMN, etc.
- 44 million data belonging to MyPertamina
- 1.3 billion SIM card registration data containing NIK, mobile number, telecommunication provider, and registration date
Low awareness level is the main factor
Cybersecurity expert from CISSReC, Pratama Persadha, said that the potential for internet data leakage and hacking in Indonesia is still very high. This is likely due to Indonesia’s low level of cybersecurity awareness.
Pratama also mentioned that the increasing trend of data leakage in Indonesia is due to the large number of employees doing WFH during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This is proven by the traffic anomaly data that increased from 800 million to 1.6 billion in 2021 as reported by the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN). This traffic anomaly, said Pratama, can be interpreted as attacks and unusual data traffic. One possibility of this traffic anomaly increase is DDoS attacks.
Government regulation is needed
Pratama hopes that with the Personal Data Protection Law (PDP Law), the personal data of the community and the country can be better protected. The presence of the PDP Law is also expected to make Electronic System Providers (PSE) follow the technology and Cyber Security standards set by the government.
Start from yourself
Protecting personal data on the Internet can start from yourself. By being more aware of criminal or fraudulent practices that result in data leakage, you can prevent your data from being misused.
To avoid being hacked, follow these tips:
- Change account passwords regularly
- Use a different password for each account you have
- Use digital wallets as an alternative to debit and credit cards
- Turn on Two-Step Verification
- Don’t use public Wi-Fi on your device
- Install an updated antivirus
- Make transactions on trusted platforms
- Avoid clicking on unfamiliar links
- Never tell the OTP code to anyone
