Why you need backups: A cyberattack on an Indonesian data center has thrown public services into chaos – and is forcing the nation to rethink data security

The Indonesian government has announced that it will launch an audit of its national data centers after officials disclosed that data was stolen during a recent Cyber Attack was not secured.

The breach of the country’s national data center severely damaged key public services, particularly the immigration system at the country’s airports.

President Joko Widodo intervened to order the audit, according to a report by Reutersand commissioned the Indonesian Development and Financial Controller (BPKP) to conduct an investigation into the country’s data centers.

According to BPKP chairman Muhammad Yusuf Ateh, the audit will cover “the governance and financial aspect.”

The background to this is revelations about the backups of the data centers: An official from the Indonesian cybersecurity authority confirmed that no backups had been made for 98 percent of the government data stored there.

The official concerned, Hinsa Siburian, blamed a lack of governance, but Meutya Hafid, the chairman of the commission investigating the violation, described the ordeal as more of a case of “stupidity.”

The country’s communications minister said there was backup capacity in the data centers, but its use was optional. The minister added that data backups were not performed due to budgetary constraints.

The incident shows once again how important a robust backup strategy is, says Erfan Shadabi, cybersecurity expert at comforte AG.

“The unfortunate disclosure of personal data that the Indonesian government is responsible for keeping should remind every organization to rethink its data security and storage,” Shadabi said.

Companies need to ensure they are prepared for situations like this, Shadabi said, and should place great emphasis on developing “robust recovery capabilities” and “proactive data-centric protection.”

“The former restores the IT and data environment to its pre-intrusion state, while the latter ensures that threat actors cannot access sensitive data and use the compromised information as further leverage,” he added.

Javvad Malik, lead security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, said the incident was another prime example of a lack of preparedness, adding that it was no surprise that such an important site lacked any backups.

“It is a fundamental oversight that speaks volumes about the company’s cybersecurity culture,” he said.

“It is critical that governments and organizations alike adopt a more robust approach to cybersecurity that includes regular data backups, ransomware protection measures and comprehensive incident response plans,” he added.

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