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Indonesia Needs to be Extra Careful of Cyber Crime - Editorial                                                                                                                                                                                                                     The Conversation

The impact of cyber crime can reach anyone in this world, who is connected with the internet. The World Economic Forum recorded that cyber crime has become a global threat since 2012, and the trend is increasing. Cyber crime targets many sectors starting from the government, industry, to individuals. The crime also varies such as private data leak, hacking, and scam. According to data from Indonesian National Police, there were 4,250 cyber crime cases from January until November 2020. In many cases, the perpetrator uses people's enthusiasm in fulfilling needs for information on Covid-19 development and handling as a way to slip in to a technology infrastructure to steal sensitive data.

The change in Indonesian people's lifestyle amid the Covid-19 pandemic which tends to depend more on the internet also affected the increasing cyber crime cases. Therefore, Indonesia needs to be extra careful of cyber crime. Moreover, the Interpol in "ASEAN Cyber Threat Assessment 2020" stated that Indonesia is the most target of phishing in ASEAN in 2019. Indonesia's status as the world's 7th biggest market with infrastructure and technology advancement in increasing the economy puts Indonesia in the crosshair of cyber criminals.

Increasing internet user penetration in Indonesia makes the country prone to cyber attack; especially when this increase does not come with skill and knowledge of the new users to protect themselves from cyber attack. The Work from Home is also a factor. People are working with networks outside their office without security guarantee. This makes them vulnerable to data theft both for individual working data or company's confidentials. 

Therefore, both national and private law enforcers and cyber security teams should proactively fight against cyber crime. The cyber security team needs to identify the cyber crime potential prior to an attack. On an individual level, every internet user should check twice the email or domain address.