Indonesia rated top source of Cyber-Attack Traffic
The unexpected surge in cyber-attacks coming from Indonesia earlier this year wasn’t a fluke. The country has overtaken China to become the No. 1 source of attack traffic in the world, according to a report by Akamai Technologies to be published later today.
Indonesia accounted for 38 percent of hacking-related traffic on servers Akamai monitored in the second quarter, up from 21 percent at the beginning of the year. China, a notorious haven for hacking, fell to No. 2, with a third of global attack traffic. The U.S. share fell to 6.9 percent, but the country remained in third place.
Determining exactly where a cyber-attack operation is centralized is difficult because a hacker can take over victims’ machines located in another country. However, the sudden rise of Indonesia, which accounted for less than 1 percent before this year, is unusual.
Akamai found that the speed of the average Internet connection in Indonesia increased 125 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period in 2012. As broadband takes hold in this developing market, cyber-crime could run rampant.
The Indonesian government has recognized the problem. Tifatul Sembiring, the country’s minister of communication and information technology, talked last month about prioritizing cybersecurity nationally. His office hosted the Indonesia Information Security Forum last week to discuss the topic.
Don’t be surprised if the subject also comes up next week when the United Nations holds its Internet Governance Forum in Bali, Indonesia. Read more