Starlink Is Still A Polemic, Cybersecurity Experts Highlight Potential Threats That Will Appear

Starlink device illustration (photo: Starlink)

JAKARTA - The presence of Starlink satellite-based internet services to Indonesia is expected to meet the needs of internet services in disadvantaged, Frontier and Outermost (3T) areas that cannot be reached by fiber cables.

However, in the midst of the benefits provided by Starlink, there are still many polemics that occur. One of them is a company owned by Elon Musk that does not yet have a Network Operation Center (NOC) in Indonesia.

Chairman of the CISSReC Cyber Security Research Institute, Pratama Persadha, highlighted how the government needs to ensure that Starlink can maintain digital sovereignty for critical sectors such as the health sector.

"Actually, the NOC location is not related to digital sovereignty or cybersecurity in Indonesia, because the NOC function is to supervise the infrastructure owned by Starlink to ensure that services are not disrupted," said Pratama in its official broadcast.

However, he added, if there is a NOC Starlink located in Indonesia, the government will be easier to collaborate with Starlink if necessary to take joint action such as eradicating online gambling and pornography.

Pratama juga khawatir bahwa kehadiran Starlink akan menyebabkan kedependakan negara yang signifikan pada layanan internet satelit yang dioperasikan oleh perusahaan asing sehingga kurang memiliki kontrol langsung atas infrastruktur tersebut.

"If it is due to conditions that can only be reached by internet services via satellite, it can use VSAT services which are also widely owned by local ISPs in the country," he said.

Another potential threat of cyber sovereignty is the presence of unwanted access where foreign countries or malicious entities can try to access satellite infrastructure for harmful purposes, such as spying or cyberattacks.

Another polemic that arises is the possibility of using satellites to carry out physical attacks, for example carrying out attacks on IKN by changing satellite orbits and being dropped to critical infrastructure that serves IKN such as PLN substations or Pertamina refineries, including dropping satellites into government centers that could cause many casualties and could even threaten the lives of the president and ministers," continued Pratama.

Therefore, Pratama revealed that what the government needs to do is to ensure that Starlink will follow the previously granted requirements so that we still have digital sovereignty even though there is Starlink in Indonesia.

"Don't let Starlink still want to meet these requirements, but in the future they don't obey it, one of which is to ensure that internet traffic in Indonesia through Starlink is only missed by local NAP and does not use laser links as a Starlink service backbone in Indonesia," he concluded.