The Official Site Of The Government And Campus Has Turned Into An Online Gambling Website, Experts Say

JAKARTA - Official sites belonging to government agencies and universities in Indonesia have again been tarnished. Not because of hoax content or data hacking, but because it has completely turned into an online gambling site.

Sites belonging to the Tabalong Regency Personnel and Human Resources Development Agency (BKPSDM) with the domain bkpsdm.tabalongkab.go.id and simpus.banyumaskab.go.id now contain the main online gambling themed page complete with the promotion of the game slot gacor and online betting agent.

A similar case also occurred in subdomains belonging to Sebelas Maret University, ptm.fkip.uns.ac.id and West Sulawesi University ojs.unsulbar.ac.id. Instead of containing educational information, the site is now promoting a digital gambling game branded Miliarbet, complete with maxwin' frills and a bonus of hundreds of percent.

Chairman of the Indonesia Cyber Security Forum (ICSF), Ardi Sutedja, called this case the culmination of systemic negligence that has been going on for a long time.

"This is actually not a new problem. The local government sites are very vulnerable because from the start they have had problems," said Ardi in Jakarta, quoted Monday, July 7.

According to him, many sites belonging to public institutions were built without proper digital security protocols. He assessed that the procurement of site creation is more price-or-visual, regardless of the technical competence of its developers.

Many of the site's developers do not have security certification such as ISO-27001. Even though that is the basis for information security management," he said.

Even worse, said Ardi, most of the sites were hosted by third parties without adequate security guarantees. This makes it easier to infiltrate and even completely changed by irresponsible parties.

Site change cases occur not only at the regional level, but also in the academic environment. Ardi assessed that the perception that the university must be safe because having an IT faculty is a false assumption.

"Not necessarily they understand security protocols. Even universities are often stuck in the same problem: they don't have enough budget, and don't understand the minimum standard of digital security," he said.

He cited the concept of 'six-Ware' from academic Rudy Gultom, which places budget-ware' or budget constraints as the root of the lowest problem in the vulnerability of the cyber world.

In addition to technical issues, Ardi assessed that cybersecurity issues in Indonesian public institutions are also closely related to the lack of awareness and digital culture.

The institution's leadership often has no insight into cyber security. If the leadership doesn't understand, how about its subordinates?" he said.

He also highlighted the absence of digital cultural education and risk management from an early age.

"Digital culture has not been built since elementary school. It is not in the curriculum. Likewise, the culture of understanding risks has never been taught," he stressed.

Ardi said that the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) and the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi) had provided guidelines for security standards. However, he questioned the extent to which these institutions read it, understand it, and implement it.

"If there is no awareness and culture of security, it will continue to repeat itself. Today the site turns into online gambling, tomorrow it could be the spreader of malware. This is a serious threat," he said.