Urgent to Improve Cyberthreat Resilience, Expert Says

Yogyakarta— As digital technology in various fields continue to develop, cybersecurity threats are becoming a more frequent occurrence. For this reason, organizations are required to be adaptive to the negative impacts caused by cyberthreats.

In response to these phenomena, the Information System Office (BSI) of Universitas Islam Indonesia, through the UII Academy Program, collaborated with the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN) to organize the 2023 Yogyakarta Cyber Resilience seminar.

Taking place at UII’s Prof. Dr. Sardjito Public Lecture Hall on Monday, 19 June 2023, the seminar was attended by Vice Rector for Academic & Research Development Prof. Dr. Jaka Nugraha, S.Si., M.Si. and BSSN Deputy for Government Cyber and Encryption Security and Human Development, Dr. Sulistyo, S.Si., S.T., M.Si.

Other than the seminar, participants took part in a cybersecurity threat management simulation on the event’s second day.

Prof. Jaka Nugraha pointed out in his opening remarks the importance of staying alert in responding to digital transformation to avoid various cyberthreats.

“The massive digital transformation has made cyber resilience increasingly urgent and relevant,” he said. “Cyberthreats that constantly develop require us to understand them and face them with the appropriate readiness and resilience.”

Data leaks in an organization are a clear example of the impact of cyberthreats on society, he said. “The impact of cyberattacks is not only related to disruption in infrastructure operations. But beyond that, an organization’s reputation can collapse in an instant,” he said. “A tarnished reputation will result in public trust falling apart.”

Therefore, Prof. Jaka Nugraha said there was a need for precise and quick planning to anticipate cyberattacks. “Careful preparation and planning are required. Organizations must have an incident response plan and, if possible, hold regular simulation exercises,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sulistyo explained that most of the factors behind the high number of malware distribution and data leaks in Indonesia was the lack of public awareness on cyberthreats.

“The main contributing factor is that many of our citizens still use gadgets with software that is not updated and patched, and with illegal licenses,” explained Dr. Sulistyo.

Further, Dr. Sulistyo mentioned the urgency of Law No. 27/2022 in providing data protection. “It’s homework for UII to appoint a Data Protection Officer. This is the law’s mandate,” he said. “Not just UII, but also the regional government, the private sector and other stakeholders.”

According to Dr. Sulistyo, resilience against cyberthreats can be implemented through several processes. “What must be done? Protection, detection, identification, mitigation, recovery. We must build resilience, response quickly and carry out simulations,” he said.

Head of BSI UII, Mukhammad Andri Setiawan, S.T., M.Sc., Ph.D., said in his presentation that the data operating system at UII used identities, meaning that digital activities would require an identity that were in accordance with a preestablished registry.

“This identity is something that is very powerful. At UII, everything must use an identity, even for the IT team member,” he said. “If someone is to access the server, we provide them with a VPN.”

According to Mukhammad Andri Setiawan, humans are the main actors in the process of developing cyberthreat prevention systems. Therefore, broad insights and understandings are needed.

“In order to accelerate the process, education is one of the important aspects. Humans are both the strongest and weakest points in the cybersecurity chain,” he said. (VIP Magazine Vol 10)