2022 Indonesian Data Leaks

Submission 2,921

Part of a series on 2022 Indonesia Internet Apocalypse. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Indonesian Data Leaks refers to the leak and online sale of data and personal information of Indonesians in August 2022. The event suddenly gained notoriety not long after Indonesia's Kementrian Komunikasi dan Informatika (Acronym: KOMINFO or Kemkominfo. Eng: Ministry of Communication and Information Technology) activated the PSE program earlier that month.

Background

On August 20th, 2022, BreachedForums^[1] user Bjorka created a thread about a leaked database of Indonesia internet service provider IndiHome, claiming that more than 26 million user's data has been leaked. On August 31st, 2022, the same BreachedForums^[2] user created a thread claiming that data stored in 1.3 billion Indonesian SIM cards are being sold.

According to CNN Indonesia,^[3] the forum that leaked and sold Indonesian data was blocked by Kemkominfo after they find it didn't register the associated domains to Indonesia's PSE program. Due to many data leaks in two weeks, on September 5th, 2022, Suara^[4] published an article about KOMINFO's Ditjen Aptika and Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan asking the hackers to not breach data anymore, quoted as "If you can, don't attack." On the next day, Bjorka replied to the message by telling Pangerapan to "stop being an idiot" on the BreachedForums^[5] thread, which was later deleted. On the next day, Facebook^[6] user Bawenang Rukmoko P P uploaded a screenshot of Bjorka's thread. The post received more than 2,500 reactions and 4,500 shares in two days (shown below).

Online Reactions

Following the Suara article in early September 2022, many Indonesians expressed their disappointment with KOMINFO's actions in trying to stop data leaks. For example, on September 5th, 2022, Facebook^[7] user Nazar Irsyad uploaded a photo collage of KOMINFO's minister, Johnny G. Plate, with the caption "Me getting a job in IT company with zero IT skills." The video received more than 1,100 reactions and 2,600 shares in three days (shown below).

On September 6th, 2022, Facebook^[8] user Roni Rizki Anugrah uploaded a meme using a Dora the Explorer scene with Swiper (depicted as the hacker) trying to steal data, then Dora stopping him by saying "Hacker jangan menyerang" (Hacker stop attacking). The post received more than 1,100 reactions and 2,400 shares (shown below, left) within two days. On the next day, Facebook^[9] user Andrian Januar Adilia uploaded fan art of Dora with the same line. The post received more than 1,000 reactions and 324 shares (shown below, right) within 24 hours.

The Suara headline also became parodied and was turned into a phrasal template. On September 8th, 2022, Facebook^[10] page Point Blank Indonesia uploaded a parody of the Suara headline. The post received more than 7,900 reactions and 3,200 shares in less than a day (shown below, left). On the same day, Facebook^[11] page Neo Historia Indonesia uploaded a parody. The post received more than 5,100 reactions and 1,300 shares within only a few hours (shown below, right).