Indonesia Faces Ransomware Crisis: $8M Demand Disrupts Government Services

Indonesia’s national data center fell victim to a cyberattack with attackers demanding an $8 million ransom. The breach has disrupted over 200 government services since June 20. Authorities, including PT Telkom Indonesia and the National Cyber and Crypto Agency, are working to resolve the issue without paying the ransom.

Indonesia's national data center has been compromised by a hacking group demanding an $8 million ransom, which the government refuses to pay, authorities stated on Monday.

The cyberattack has disrupted services affecting more than 200 government agencies at both the national and regional levels since June 20, according to Samuel Abrijani Pangerapan, the director general of informatics applications at the Communications and Informatics Ministry.

While some services, such as immigration at airports, have been restored, efforts are ongoing to recover other critical services including investment licensing, Pangerapan informed reporters.

The hacking group has held data hostage, offering a return key in exchange for the $8 million ransom, revealed PT Telkom Indonesia's director of network & IT solutions, Herlan Wijanarko.

Wijanarko mentioned that the company, in collaboration with domestic and international authorities, is actively investigating and attempting to break the encryption making the data inaccessible.

The Communication and Informatics Minister, Budi Arie Setiadi, told journalists that the government will not comply with the ransom demand.

“We are doing our best to recover the impacted systems while the National Cyber and Crypto Agency is performing forensic analysis,” Setiadi added.

Hinsa Siburian, head of the National Cyber and Crypto Agency, revealed that samples of the Lockbit 3.0 ransomware have been detected.