Ministry Data Hacked By 'Mustang Panda' Hackers, DPR: This Should Be A Serious Concern For The Government

Member of Commission I DPR Sukamta (Photo: Instagram @drsukamta)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission I of the Indonesian House of Representatives in charge of defense and informatics, Sukamta, urged the government to be serious about protecting strategic sites and data. The statement was in response to data from ministries and agencies in Indonesia that were allegedly hacked by Chinese hackers claiming to be Mustang Panda.

"The breach of data from ministries and institutions must be a serious concern by the government, especially BSSN and Kominfo to safeguard and protect our cyber world. I have been worried for a long time, when business and health data leaks, it does not mean that there is no leakage in the political sector. It's only a matter of time, when will the data leak be revealed," said Sukamta in a statement, Monday, September 13.

He said hacker attacks in the political field are more powerful than economic, health, and social. According to him, an evaluation must be carried out, then the overall improvement of data management and cyberspace in Indonesia.

"Security of sites and data in Indonesia must be taken seriously by the government. There have been repeated cases of burglary of millions of data, but the government in this case Kominfo is the leading sector ministry responsible for data and information such as a toothless tiger. The roar is loud but cannot bite. Cases of online fraud "The burglary of millions of data is like the wind and the direction is unclear. Kominfo can only block porn sites, gambling, fraud, SARA, and others," he explained.

The chairman of the PKS DPP for Overseas Development and Development also has another note regarding the rise of hacker attacks originating from China. According to him, massive attacks in various countries that have economic cooperation such as Indonesia are currently important to pay attention to.

"Indonesia cooperates with China in the economic field, but it becomes strange when strategic data in the Ministries and Institutions is targeted by Chinese hackers. Is this purely hacking for prestige and economic purposes for the name of the hacker group or does this hacking occur in a structured manner with purposes other than economics? This espionage by Mustang Panda may also not be the only attempt to break into strategic data, there may be others, but it has not been revealed. So the task of BSSN is to prevent and uncover every espionage of Indonesian strategic data so that cases of data breaches can be completed, " he said.

"If it is found that this is a planned spoof, the Indonesian government needs to protest to the Chinese government," he added.

As previously reported, The Record, based on a report from Insikt Group, Recorded Future's cyber threat research division, stated that the Mustang Panda hacker group is a hacker group with cyber espionage actions in Southeast Asia. Insikt discovered in April 2021, there was PlugX malware from Mustang Panda inside Indonesian government networks