DailyPost 2830
INDONESIA’s NATIONAL DATA CENTER HACKED
Though hacking of well established IT systems is not an easy task, yet is happening at an astonishing regularity. This manifests too facts of modern cyber systems, first it is complex with endless moving parts and second, there are hackers who know the systems and more so the vulnerabilities better than the creators and operators. Given these two facts and the increasing expertise and collaboration amongst bad actors is creating a nature of cyber threat, which hits at the base of our tech existence. Critical infrastructure is bearing the brunt and ransomware is the hack flavour of the day.
Now in news is Indonesia’s National Data Center for a ransomware attack with a demand for $8 million ransom. This audacious hack is reported to have compromised hundreds of government offices. The attack “ affected 210 institutions at the national and local levels’”, a senior officer told reporters on Monday. He also added that a dark web hacker had demanded a $8 million ransom. The investigation is on the ransomware known as Brain Clipper, “which made the data inaccessible due to encryption.” What a debilitating impact on the government machinery. At times, it gives a feeling the governments are losing real control pretty fast.
The ransomware attack’s most visible and high profile manifestation were the long queues at the immigration gates at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. This was the visible impact of the systems going down post the attack. The attack as is believed was carried out using software developed by ransomware outfit LockBit, as per an official from the Communications Ministry. It was also informed that the immigration services were reaching normalcy and work was going on at a fast pace to restore other affected services. Without paying ransom to get back to an operational level, during a short span of time is not easy. This is the nature of resilience which we need to create in our systems.
Lock Bit has been infamous for its ransomware attacks and with its affiliates have targeted governments, major companies, even schools and hospitals. The nature and quantum of damages has barely been quantified in financial terms, for sure, it has caused billions of dollars of damage. Lock Bit has been successful in extracting millions of dollars in ransoms from victims. It is an enterprise level organised gang, its precision in all departments of the game can put the legal counterparts to shame. Once your files get encrypted by a ransomware attack, there is no playbook in the world, which can really guarantee you even an iota of recovery. You may well have turnarounds to get back to work, but it is terribly arduous and costs prohibitive. But what is the way out?
TO PAY RANSOM OR TO GO THE ARDUOUS WAY POST A RANSOMWARE ATTACK IS A MULTI BILLION DOLLAR QUESTION.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.