State Institutions Hacked By Foreigners, What Are The Impacts For Us Citizens?

JAKARTA - Reports of the hacking of ten Indonesian government ministries and agencies are in the spotlight. The hack was allegedly carried out by Mustang Panda, a Chinese hacker group. The State Intelligence Agency (BIN) is said to be one of the institutions that conceded. BIN denied. But apart from all the gray truths, what are the real risks for us, citizens, when a foreign party hacks into state institutions?

The alleged hacking of ten internal networks of ministries and agencies was reported by Insikt Group, a non-profit organization that focuses on cybersecurity. The report was later published in The Record. According to the publication, researchers have been monitoring the hack since April. The publication also describes Mustang Panda as a group involved in many espionage acts targeting countries in Southeast Asia.

The beginning of this alleged hack was discovered when Insikt Group researchers detected the PlugX malware operated by Mustang Panda. They use a command and control (C&C) server to communicate with hosts on the Indonesian government's internal network. That way Mustang Panda takes control of a malware-infected system. Mustang Panda can also receive stolen data from agency and ministry internet networks.

According to The Record, Mustang Panda's system, which runs the malware and communicates to internet-based C&C servers, is able to extract important data, such as user passwords. In addition, hacking can also cause other damage. Even so, there are still questions about how the method of sending malware to the network of agencies and ministries is because the report does not explain it.

BIN, as the institution most highlighted in this case, denied that it had conceded. Deputy VII BIN Wawan Hari Purwanto ensured that currently BIN's servers were in a safe condition. Wawan also said that periodic checks on the system, including the server, were carried out on a regular basis. "(Checking) To ensure that the server continues to function as usual," Wawan, in his statement, Tuesday, September 14.

As a mitigation, Wawan said that his party would continue to explore this news with relevant parties, including collaborating with the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN), the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo), and a number of other parties. Wawan should be right, considering that BIN plays an important role in maintaining state secrecy. Before Wawan responded, The Record reportedly requested a response from BIN but did not reply.

Cyber security practitioner Alfons Tanujaya agreed that this incident should be investigated. It's all too early, even to say for sure where the hackers came from. There is no authentic evidence. After all, hackers, said Alfons, can fake a digital identity that obscures the truth of information about him.

"It's not certain where it came from. But it's just a guess. It's most likely related to a certain country based on the actions it did and the history of its actions against any country and doing it for whose interests," Alfons told VOI, Tuesday, September 14.

Regarding the intelligence hack, Alfons explained the vulnerability. Intelligence hacking is a must, something every country must do in the digital age. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the side of the competent authorities in securing our cyber world, which in this case is BSSN.

"The intelligence threat will indeed turn into a digital intelligence threat. That's why we need to have an agency that has the ability to manage and defend cyber sovereignty in our country.

BSSN has a very strategic position. He also has great authority to secure communications between state institutions and the Indonesian cyber world. "According to the Presidential Decree, this position and authority should be used as well as possible," said Alfons.

"BSSN has a central role in securing communications because they are an amalgamation of Lemsaneg which handles encryption of communications between state institutions. And this is the backbone of communication security between state institutions," added Alfons.

There's a serious problem, obviously. In The Record's report, it is explained that Insikt Group researchers are said to have informed Indonesian authorities about the hack in June and July. But there was no response.

However, The Record source involved in the internal investigation said the Indonesian government had taken steps to identify and clean up infected systems last August. But not enough. Not long after that, Mustang Panda was the first to break into.

Intelligence hacking is strategic and carried out by a country for its own interests. In general, the purpose of hacking is to obtain information about state policies, government strategic decisions, political lobbies, to military strategies and secrets.

A concrete example in the context of the state occurred in the Ukraine crisis. In that conflict, Russia faced the European Union. Intelligence hacking is key. Russia managed to figure out the EU's strategy of not attacking on the grounds of heavy losses.

Knowing the calculations, Russia became more daring to carry out significant attacks. "This is an example of obtaining intelligence information that is used for the benefit of the state," said Alfons Tanujaya.

Broadly speaking, countries will suffer specific losses -- depending on what information is stolen -- from intelligence hacking. For citizens, significant losses can be felt when there is political or social chaos.

"It will have a direct impact on the population but all of them are general and not individual to the people," Alfons said.

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