TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Minister of Communications and Informatics (Kominfo) Budi Arie Setiadi said he is planning to make a regulation requiring all ministries and institutions to backup their data after the Temporary National Data Center (PDNS) server was hacked.

The minister stated that the government did have backup facilities, but it was an optional action prior to the ransomware attack.

"I will sign a ministerial decree regarding the PDN implementation soon which will require all ministries and governmental agencies to provide backup of their data. It will be mandatory, not optional as before,” he said on Thursday, June 27, 2024.

According to Minister Budi, only 44 governmental agencies have backup, and these agencies recover more swiftly from cyber attacks. He also explained other agencies did not carry out backups due to budget limitations and difficulty explaining to financial authorities and auditors.

"Sometimes our (financial) authorities like to ask for explanations, which makes it difficult for ministries and regional institutions to explain that budget for data backup must be covered,” said Budi Arie.

The brain cipher ransomware attack paralyzed the National Data Center since June 20. Budi Arie said the hacker demanded a ransom of US$8 million or Rp131 billion so the data access could be opened again.

The attack caused a total or partial disruption to the main system. “This could affect the services and finance, and all tenants are affected," said Budi.

Additionally, the ransomware attack caused the failure of a feature that severely affected the performance of an application. For example, the shutdown at Immigration was highlighted by many since it paralyzed airport services.

AISYAH AMIRA WAKANG

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