Ardito Ramadhan, Jakarta – The Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SafeNET) has launched a petition on the change.org website calling for Communication and Information Technology Minister (Menkominfo) Budi Arie Setiadi to resign from his position.
SafeNET Executive Director Nenden Sekar Arum said the petition was rolled out to raise a public campaign that there is a party that has to be held responsible for various cyber attacks that culminated in the attack on the government's Temporary National Data Center (PDNS).
"We are targeting Budi Arie because he is indeed the Kominfo [Communication and Information Technology Ministry] Minister and the Kominfo is the institution that is responsible for the PDNS", Arum said when contacted by Kompas.com on Thursday July 27.
Arum said that the position of Communication and Information Technology Minister over the last few periods has been filled by political party representative with questionable capabilities.
Yet, the Ministry is currently dealing with many digital problems, information systems and new technologies.
According to Arum, this position requires people who have insight into technological and digital developments, although it does not have to be technical.
"Unfortunately, we do not see this in the current minister. So, understanding the digital ecosystem, internet governance has been very minimal if we look at the Menkominfo at the moment", she said.
As has been reported, the PDNS has still not been restored after experiencing a ransomware cyber attack on Thursday June 20.
The attack not only resulted in interference with a number of services, but resulted in data belonging to 282 ministries, government institutions and local governments stored at the PDNS being locked and held for ransom.
A team from the Ministry of Communication and Information, the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN), the National Police and the state telecommunication provider Telkom, as the manager of the PDNS, have been attempting to restore the data, but have not produced any results.
The government eventually claimed that it has failed recover the data stored at the PDNS.
"We have being trying hard to recover the resources we have. What is clear is that the data that has been hit by ransomware and cannot be recovered. So for now we'll use the resources that we still have", said Telkom Network and IT Director Herlan Wijanarko on Wednesday June 26.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Safenet Galang Petisi Tuntut Budi Arie Mundur dari Menkominfo".]
