Cyber Security Experts Say Ransomware And Data Theft Will Be More Successful In 2022

Ransomware attacks are estimated to be more widespread in 2022. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - Towards the start of 2022, Work From Home (WFH) is again being implemented, considering that the Omicron COVID-19 variant has just appeared. However, WFH during the pandemic has been the cause of the high number of hacks and data leaks, it is claimed will occur until next year.

Cyber security expert Pratama Persadha explained that cyber threats in 2022 will not be as far away as in 2021. Indonesia has homework to prevent various data leaks, especially in state and private institutions that process large amounts of public personal data.

"In 2021, Indonesia has a bad record globally in the case of BPJS Health leaks. Because the leak of 279 million data is included in the order of the largest data breach recorded by various cyber institutions around the world," said Pratama in an official statement received by VOI, Friday, December 24.

"From this incident, the government should be able to learn from these mistakes and not repeat them in the years to come. This is because attacks are expected to become more common, stronger and more advanced in the years to come," he added.

Pratama added that data theft will still be a trend in 2022. Massive amounts of data are increasingly needed by many parties, both for legal and illegal activities. This is also happening globally, but with internet users as of January this year reaching more than 200 million people, of course Indonesia must be more serious about this problem.

“Data theft or cyber attacks are very difficult to prevent. However, all of this can be suppressed by using a legal approach through laws, as well as human resources and technology approaches. The Personal Data Protection Law (UU PDP) is the subject of news coverage during 2020-2021 because there are so many data leaks and the public can't do anything because there is no instrument to protect it, "explained Pratama.

Primary added that the ransomware threat will also continue to grow. These attacks are expected to increase in critical industries where paying cybercriminals is forced to protect data security and safety for the survival of the institution or company.

"In 2022, predictions based on existing global trends by looking at attack patterns and technological innovations that continue to change, ransomware attacks are projected to increase, to deepfakes as well as IoT device vulnerabilities that are likely to add threats to cybersecurity," explained Pratama.

In addition, Pratama also explained that according to a report by the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN), Indonesia itself had more than 1 billion recorded attacks until October 2021. This is more than twice as much as 2020, which is also more than 2019 before the pandemic.

IBM noted an increase in losses per data leak from 3.86 million US dollars in 2020 to 4.24 million US dollars in 2021. Then the leakage of personal data also contributed to the biggest loss with a value of around Rp. 2.5 million for one public data.

Events such as the leaking of government institutional data from the National Police, BPJS Health, e-HAC, and the number of hacks on government websites such as the District Secretariat, DPR, are expected to be suppressed in the coming year, thereby increasing international confidence in Indonesia. Therefore, Pratama underlined the importance of the PDP Law being completed by 2022.