Indonesia Begins Data Recovery After Ransomware Attack

A large ransomware assault last month hit over 160 government agencies in Indonesia and data is being recovered

According to Singapore-based cybersecurity firm StealthMole, the attackers, identified as Brain Cipher, initially requested $8 million in ransom to access the data.

However, they subsequently apologized and provided the decryption key for free.

Various government services, such as immigration and operations at leading airports, have been affected by the attack. Indonesian officials have acknowledged that most data had yet to be backed up.

On Thursday evening, Chief Security Minister Hadi Tjahjanto issued a statement stating that a “decryption strategy” had been employed to retrieve data for 30 public services under the supervision of 12 ministries. He did not provide any further details.

The statement stated that we are gradually addressing this issue. The government’s utilization of Brain Cipher’s decryption key was not readily apparent. Hadi and Communications Minister Budi Arie Setiadi waited to respond to inquiries for comment.

Ransomware perpetrators employ software to encrypt data and request victims’ payments to restore it. According to Indonesia, Lockbit 3.0, a malicious software, was used in this attack.