PIKIRAN RAKYAT - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has responded to the insistence of many parties who asked the Minister of Communication and Information Technology (Menkominfo), Budi Arie Setiadi, to resign from his position. The urgency arose after the Temporary National Data Center (PDNS) 2 was attacked by hackers using the lockbit 3.0 ransomware virus since Wednesday, June 17, 2024.

"Everything has been evaluated," Jokowi said, quoting Pikiran-Rakyat.com from Antara, Wednesday, July 3, 2024.

The public was also reminded about the importance of national data reserves so that similar incidents do not occur in the future. To date, 22,236 people have signed the petition.

"All our national data (should) be backed up, so that if something happens, we will not be surprised. We have evaluated everything. The most important thing is that everything must find a solution so that it does not happen again," he said.

According to Jokowi, ransomware attacks do not only occur in Indonesia, but also in several other countries.

Previously, the insistence on Budi Arie was channeled through a petition entitled PDNS Hit by Ransomware, Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi Must Resign. The petition was created by the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (Safenet) through the change.org website.

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin.

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin also commented on the urge to resign for Budi Arie. He considered it to be the president's business, "I think that the issue of (minister’s) replacement is a matter of the president's prerogative."

Regarding the ransomware attack on PDNS 2, Ma'ruf Amin admitted that the government never thought that such a powerful hack would occur.

"Regarding the Data Center, in the past, the Data Center in several communities of our institution was easy to hack, so it was unified into the National Data Center, it turned out that when it was centralized, it was so hacked, everything was hit. So, it was not thought before that there was a possibility of such a terrible hack," he said.

Illustration hacker.

The hackers who attacked PDNS 2 seemed sorry for the Indonesian Government and promised to restore PDNS 2 data for free.

"This Wednesday, we will give you a description key for free. We hope our attack sends a clear message to you how important it is to finance the industry and recruit qualified specialists," he said.

"Our attack does not carry a political context, only a security evaluation with postpaid," he said.

In his statement, the hacker also apologized to the Indonesian people, "Indonesian citizens, we apologize because this has an impact on everyone. We also ask for the community's gratitude and assurance that we have made this decision consciously and independently."

President Jokowi has responded to the insistence of many parties who asked the Minister of Communication and Information Technology (Menkominfo), Budi Arie Setiadi, to resign from his position by stressing the need for better data backup systems to prevent future attacks. The incident highlighted vulnerabilities in the nation's data security infrastructure.*** (Politeknik Negeri Bandung/Sintia Yuliana)