Banks and financial institutions are always on a hacker’s target list. Cybercriminals recently targeted Bank Indonesia (BI), disrupting its operations temporarily. According to a report, the central bank of the Republic of Indonesia confirmed that it had sustained a ransomware attack. However, the bank also clarified that the attack did not impact its operations or compromise any critical data, adding mitigation measures were undertaken.
“We were attacked, but so far so good as we took anticipatory measures and most importantly public services at Bank Indonesia were not disrupted at all,” said Bank Indonesia’s spokesperson in a media statement.
Cybercriminals leverage ransomware to penetrate targeted network systems, infect critical files, and encrypt them, making them inaccessible to others. Threat actors often demand a ransom to decrypt the infected systems.
Conti Ransomware Suspected
While Bank Indonesia did not reveal the ransomware operators behind this attack, security experts suspect this could be from the Conti ransomware group. Conti is a Russian-speaking ransomware group that reportedly victimized more than 400 organizations worldwide, of which 290 are in the U.S. alone. Conti attackers infiltrate victim networks through phishing emails (malicious links or attachments) or stolen/cracked remote desktop protocol (RDP) credentials. These cyber actors then steal files, encrypt servers and workstations, and demand ransom.
Also Read: Cybercriminals Make Twitter a Playing Field to Target Indonesian Banks
Cyberattacks on Indonesia
Security incidents on Indonesian financial organizations have become prevalent in recent times. A cyber intelligence report from Group-IB recently found traces of an ongoing fraudulent campaign based on Twitter targeting Indonesia’s largest banks. Cybercriminals posed as bank representatives or customer support team members on Twitter to lure and gain the trust of targeted victims. This massive campaign, which began in January 2021, ballooned 2.5-fold (from 600 in January) to a total of 1,600 fake Twitter accounts impersonating banks until early March. It is found that over seven large Indonesian financial institutions have been targeted under this campaign. The scam affected over two million Indonesian bank customers active with legitimate bank handles on Twitter.
Favour Femi-Oyewole is a Doctoral Student at Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. She is the Group Chief Information Security Officer in the Access Bank Plc overseeing the Information & Cyber Security of the Group office and the Subsidiaries. Favour also holds several certifications in the IT & Information Security and Cybersecurity field. She is a Cisco Certified Security Professional, Checkpoint Security Administrator, 1st female COBIT 5 Assessor certified in Africa, Certified Chief Information Security Officer, Certified ISO 27001 Lead Implementer, and Lead Auditor. She is also the first female in Africa to be a Blockchain Certified Professional.
Sriram Tarikere has over 15 years of experience in executing cybersecurity and privacy risk assessments, ranging from very detailed ISO 27001/NIST, HIPAA, PCIDSS and Risk Quantification assessments, to technical cloud and blockchain secure design and architecture reviews, application and network security assessments, red teaming, threat hunting and social engineering exercises. He has led and coordinated incident response and forensic investigation efforts for some of the largest and high-profile breaches in the recent past. He also advises clients on some of the most complex cybersecurity initiatives and acts as a trusted security adviser to organizations, C-Suite and board members.
Carolyn Crandall is the Chief Security Advocate at Attivo Networks, the leader in preventing identity privilege escalation and detecting lateral movement attacks. She has worked in high-tech for over 30 years and has been recognized as a top 100 women in cybersecurity, a guest on Fox News, and profiled in the Mercury News. She is an active speaker on security innovation at CISO forums, industry events, and technology education webinars. Carolyn also co-authored the book Deception-Based Threat Detection: Shifting Power to the Defenders.