Chinese Hackers Allegedly Breaking Ministry/Agency Data, DPR Suspects Planned Espionage

UNSPLASH

JAKARTA - Member of Commission I of the DPR, Sukamta, highlighted the breach of Ministry/Agency data that was suspected of being hacked again. The culprit is a Chinese hacker who claims to be a Mustang Panda.

The member of the commission in charge of defense and informatics stated that the government must be serious about protecting strategic sites and data. Moreover, recently Indonesia has frequently leaked data.

"The breach of data from ministries and institutions must be a serious concern for the government, especially BSSN and the Ministry of Communication and Information to safeguard and protect our cyber world," Sukamta told reporters, Monday, September 13.

"I've been worried for a long time, when business and health data leaks, it doesn't mean there are no leaks in the political sector. It's only a matter of time, when will the data leak be revealed," he continued.

The chairman of the PKS DPP for Overseas Development and Development reminded that hacker attacks in the political field are stronger than economic, health and social. Therefore, according to him, a thorough evaluation and improvement of cyber world data management in Indonesia must be carried out. The government must be serious about securing sites and data in Indonesia.

"There have been repeated cases of burglary of millions of data, but the government, in this case the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, is the leading sector ministry responsible for data and information, such as a toothless tiger. The roar is loud but cannot bite. The Ministry of Communication and Information can only block porn sites, gambling, fraud, SARA and others," said Sukamta.

In addition, continued Sukamta, regarding the rampant 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 the purpose of prestige and economics for the name of the hacker group? Or did this hack happen in a structured way for purposes other than economics?," he said.

Sukamta assessed that Mustang Panda's espionage might not be the only attempt to breach strategic data. It could be, he said, there are others but have not been revealed.

"So the task of the BSSN is to prevent and uncover any strategic data espionage in Indonesia so that data breach cases can be completed. If it is found that this is planned espionage, the Indonesian government needs to protest to the Chinese government," said Sukamta.

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