Indonesia urges banks to strengthen cyber defenses amid attack surge

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia’s government and financial regulators have urged national commercial banks to bolster their cybersecurity defenses following a surge in global cyberattacks targeting financial institutions, officials said Monday.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto called on the banking sector to enhance digital security layers to protect national information systems and safeguard financial infrastructure against widespread hacking attempts.

"Each bank must strengthen its cybersecurity, especially given the digital mechanisms currently in place," Hartarto told reporters in Jakarta, describing the wave of global breaches as a direct test of the country's cyber resilience.

Echoing the warning, Dian Ediana Rae, Chief Executive of Banking Supervision at the Financial Services Authority (OJK), confirmed that regulatory supervisors issued formal directives to bank boards of directors last week urging immediate preventive action.

The OJK instructed financial institutions to execute specific technical protocols, including real-time monitoring of high-value transfers and the immediate suspension of anomalous transactions pending verification.

Under existing digital resilience regulations, Indonesian banks are mandated to undergo regular penetration testing, cyberattack simulations, and comprehensive IT audits.

The regulatory push coincides with global threat data from FortiGuard Labs indicating that nearly 1.9 million cyberattacks were blocked worldwide within a 24-hour period—a rate of roughly 22 attacks per second.

Financial, banking, and insurance entities accounted for the largest share of targeted institutions globally, absorbing approximately 999,000 recorded attack attempts.

Translator: Imamatul Silfia, Yashinta Difa Pramudyani
Editor: Aditya Eko Sigit Wicaksono
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