Cisdi

Summary

Cyberattacks targeted Indonesian critics of the government's COVID-19 response, including a university epidemiologist whose Twitter account was compromised to post damaging images before being secured. A news website displayed a patriotic song and threatening message after unauthorized access, while a civil society organization lost critical documents in a separate breach. Multiple civil society groups condemned the coordinated incidents as threats to democratic expression, citing a pattern of digital intimidation against government critics. The country's communications minister dismissed allegations of selective targeting, characterizing the incidents as general cybercrime and urging official reporting for investigation.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

In mid-August 2020, a series of cyberattacks targeted Indonesian entities critical of the government's COVID-19 response. Between August 16-22, unidentified actors compromised the Twitter account of Pandu Riono, a University of Indonesia epidemiologist known for criticizing pandemic policies. Attackers posted damaging images to his profile before the account was secured and content deleted. Pandu had previously opposed government promotion of domestic tourism during the pandemic and expressed skepticism about a potential COVID-19 vaccine. Concurrently, news outlet tempo.co was hacked, with its homepage replaced by a patriotic song and threatening message directed at critics. The Center for Indonesia's Strategic Development Initiatives (CISDI), a health policy organization, suffered a separate attack resulting in permanent loss of critical documents from its website. All three targets had publicly challenged official pandemic management approaches.

These coordinated incidents caused operational disruption and reputational risks. CISDI's document loss impaired its health advocacy work, while tempo.co temporarily lost control of its digital platform. Civil society groups including Amnesty International Indonesia condemned the attacks as systematic attempts to suppress dissent, noting 35 similar digital intimidation cases since February 2019. Communications Minister Johnny G Plate rejected allegations of political motivation, asserting cybercrime indiscriminately targets all entities. Affected parties restored compromised systems independently, with authorities advising formal incident reporting for investigation. The attacks occurred amid heightened tensions between Indonesian authorities and pandemic policy critics, though no perpetrator attribution or specific intrusion methods were disclosed publicly.

Sources

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