PUTRAJAYA – The Digital Ministry is committed to establishing infrastructure that ensures stringent data security and imposes penalties for data breaches, according to its minister, Gobind Singh Deo.
Speaking to reporters today, he said that this initiative is part of the ministry’s forward-looking plan to prepare the country for future technological challenges, drawing lessons from the recent data breach incident in Indonesia.
Gobind outlined that the ministry’s strategy also involves exploring and leveraging the digital economy, which holds significant potential for future opportunities.
“We are making sure that this infrastructure is equipped to strictly protect data security. We look at the importance of data protection and how the ministry can best facilitate such matters, including data-sharing (among agencies if required) as well as legislation to allow such sharing, in protecting its security.
“So, we’re coming up with infrastructure for data sharing as well, and we hope to table all these in the next parliament sitting in November.
“At the same time, we have introduced a cybersecurity bill, which deals with the Critical Network Information Infrastructure (CNII), and of course, we have strengthened provisions for personal data protection in the last Dewan Rakyat sitting, in which this bill will probably go to the Dewan Negara next week.
“We are doing our part to make sure all necessary laws are there to protect these data and despite knowing any amendments will take time, I think, given the fact that the ministry was just set up seven months ago, we’re moving quickly,” he told a press conference at the Digital Ministry headquarters, here.
Gobind assured that the ministry’s key priority moving forward is data security, and they will take all necessary steps to secure systems that protect and store data.
Last month, Indonesia’s National Data Centre systems were compromised by BrainCipher, a variant of the Lockbit 3.0 ransomware, which blocked user access and disrupted services, affecting at least 282 public institutions in the republic.
The attackers demanded a US$8 million ransom from Indonesia to release the data, which the government refused to pay.
As a result of the attack, digital services for immigration were shut down, affecting the processing of visas, passports, and residence permits, leading to long queues at airports. Indonesia has since managed to restore control, and automated passport scanners are now back online.
Given the scale of the attack, the Indonesian government had no choice but to recollect all data from scratch. – July 24, 2024