AirNav Strengthens Cyber-Synergy Digital Security Against Christmas-New Year

President Director of AirNav Indonesia Avirianto Suratno (center)/ANTARA/Harianto

JAKARTA - Perum of the Indonesian Aviation Navigation Service Operators (LPPNPI) or AirNav Indonesia strengthens cybersecurity and digital collaboration to ensure that national flight navigation services are free of disruption during the period of dense Christmas and New Year 2025/2026 transportation.

AirNav Indonesia's Director of Security and Standardization Safety Nurcahyo Utomo said the digital era brought convenience as well as a new threat in the form of cyber attacks such as phishing and ransomware that could potentially disrupt flight service systems amid increased air transportation activity at the end of the year.

"This is where we internally carry out several activities, several steps to keep cybersecurity maintained. We will ensure that our system is ready for Christmas and New Year. So, how to improve cybersecurity from phishing, ransomware, and others," said Nurcahyo as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, November 13.

He said the move needed to be taken in response to the rise of cyber attacks that had paralyzed the flight system, one of which was in Malaysia, causing passengers to fail to check-in and flights to experience long delays.

Europe also experienced a similar disruption, starting in Brussels, the Belgian capital and then spreading to various countries, causing chaos in the check-in system and delaying mass flights at a number of major airports.

AirNav Indonesia considers this condition as a warning that digital transformation must be balanced with strong protection against information systems and infrastructure for national aviation navigation technology.

As an anticipatory measure, AirNav activated the Security Operation Center (SOC) which operates 24 hours to monitor, detect, and respond to any potential cyber threats during the busy lives of Christmas and New Year.

In addition, he said the Security Information Event Management (SIEM) system was alerted to detect suspicious activity, including potential data leakage, phishing attacks, and ransomware that could interfere with flight operations.

AirNav also uses an automated detection system and digital forensic analysis to ensure rapid recovery in the event of a disturbance, keeping the navigation system functioning normally without interruption.

The close collaboration was carried out with the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) which periodically tests the strength of the AirNav firewall through infiltration simulations to ensure readiness to face various forms of new attacks.

The results of a cybersecurity assessment in October 2025 showed AirNav reached level 4 or managed', reflecting the organization's ability to monitor, detect, and tackle cyber threats systematically and sustainably.

AirNav also increases the competence of human resources by sending personnel to international training and establishing technical cooperation with Australia through simulations of handling cyber incidents on November 20.

In the near future, AirNav will participate in the preparation of joint regulations with the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs to strengthen inter-institutional collaboration in maintaining data security in the national air transportation sector.

Not only that, currently AirNav also has a Cyber Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) team tasked with detecting, analyzing, mitigating, and restoring the system quickly to ensure Indonesia's flight service digital security is maintained.

"This team will work 24 hours a day, so there are no holidays, and will work together with the security operation center, to maintain cybersecurity at AirNav Indonesia. So it is hoped that by having this CSIRT team, AirNav will be prepared to deal with cyberattack disturbances," said Nurcahyo.

AirNav Indonesia President Director Avirianto Suratno said that during the Christmas and New Year's period this time, AirNav projects that aircraft movements at all airports in Indonesia will reach 76,972 flights.

Where, from the movement of air traffic flow, it is calculated for 18 days that special services for the transportation period for the Christmas and New Year holidays have increased by around 3.5 percent compared to the previous year.

"During that time, the intensity of daily flights at all airports was estimated at 4,300 to close to 5,000 aircraft movements," said Avirianto.