Irf’an Kamil, Jakarta – An Instagram account belonging to the WatchDoc documentary film producer and a Twitter account for promoting a new film titled KPK The End Game (2021) at @KPK_EndGame were hacked on Sunday June 3.
Earlier, social media and the personal accounts of anti-corruption activists were similarly hacked.
WatchDoc founder and senior journalists Dandhy Dwi Laksono believes that the hacks targeting anti-corruption groups are not the work of some bored individual.
"It is difficult to say that the series of targeted hacks which occurred where a common thread is apparent such as this were random hacking attempts", Laksono told Kompas.com on Monday June 7.
"It is difficult to conclude that what happened to the WatchDoc account was the work of a bored individual", he said.
Laksono said that they have tried to apply digital security standards since they held joint screenings of the films Sexy Killers in 2019 and Kinipan in 2021.
Earlier, their Instagram account was hacked and the user name WatchDoc changed to "watchwatchwatchhehe" and the profile name changed to "dogwatch".
In a posting on Twitter, Laksono said that aside from WatchDoc's Instagram account, the Twitter account @KPK_EndGame was also damaged in a hack. The account has now been recovered and the name changed to @KPK_EndGame2021.
Aside from the hack by unidentified persons, said Laksono, the committee organising a joint screening of the film KPK The End Game in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, were also terrorised.
Nevertheless, Laksono did not explain the exact nature of the terror. Despite this, the joint film screening still went ahead.
As has been reported, the film KPK The End Game is a documentary recounting the testimonies of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) employees who were deemed to have failed the civics knowledge or nationalism test (TWK).
Passing the TWK was one of the requirements for KPK employees to become state civil servants (ASN).
Based on the results of the TWK – which have still not been made public – 75 KPK employees were declared to have failed the test. Following a decision by the KPK leadership, those who failed the TWK were then suspended or removed from their jobs.
The KPK leadership along with the State Civil Service Agency (BKN) and the Minister for Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (MenPAN-RB) subsequently held a meeting.
The result was that out of the 75 employees who failed the TWK, it was declared that 51 employees would no longer be part of the KPK as of November 1, 2021.
There is no guarantee meanwhile that the remaining 24 – although they have been given an opportunity to take part in National Defense program training – will be promoted to state civil servants.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Akun IG WatchDoc Jadi Korban, Dandhy Laksono Curiga Ada Benang Merah Peretasan".]
