JAKARTA; Indonesian banks have been hit by a wave of cyberattacks in recent days, with more than 1.2 million attempts recorded in the past 24 hours, prompting regulators to take action to prevent security breaches.
Readings from FortiGuard Labs, a threat intelligence arm of United States-based cybersecurity company Fortinet, showed that the country's banking, finance and insurance industries had been subjected to more than 1.2 million cyberattacks in 24 hours as of Monday evening.
The technology industry trailed far behind, with 434,000 attacks, followed by the government sector with 163,000 hits.
The number of attacks targeting the banking industry had jumped from 657,000 recorded over the weekend, according to a report by Indonesian daily Kompas.
Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky ranked Indonesia as the 32nd most-attacked country in the world on Monday.
Financial Services Authority (OJK) banking supervision chief executive Dian Ediana Rae told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the OJK's technology supervisors had been liaising with banks' technology departments since last Friday to "step up alertness".
"Last week I have reminded bank managements to remain alert about the increase in cyberattacks lately and undertake preventive measures," said Dian.
He added that he had sent letters to banks outlining technical measures, including paying extra attention to any "significant transactions" and pausing anomalous ones for verification.
He said banks were also required to routinely conduct penetration tests, cyberattack simulations and technology audits in accordance with digital resilience regulations.
Dian said both the OJK and Bank Indonesia (BI) had activated their Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT), known in Indonesia by the acronym TTIS.
"The OJK urges the public to remain calm, transact as usual and comply with account security protocols required by each bank. Communication with banks should be done via the lenders' official channels, and don't respond to speculative news or news that is not based on accurate information," said Dian.
Asked about the wave of attacks on Monday, Coordinating Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto said such incidents "test the ability of our system" and urged banks to "enhance" their cybersecurity measures given the vulnerabilities they face today.
PT Bank CIMB Niaga president director and chief executive officer Lani Darmawan told The Jakarta Post on Monday that she was "monitoring the situation".
She said the bank was undertaking preventive measures, including issuing new security patches "in keeping with the regulator's instruction".
Lani said CIMB remained "safe" and urged customers to follow security protocols. - Jakarta Post/ANN
