Indonesia Police, FBI to Cooperate on Probing Cybercrimes

TheIndonesia.id - The Cyber Crime Directorate of the Indonesian National Police (Polri) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Cyber Division have agreed to cooperate in investigating international cybercriminal networks.

The Police's Cyber Crime Director Brigadier General Asep Edi Suheri led the police delegation at the meeting with officials from the FBI's Cyber Division and Washington D.C.'s FBI local office on November 30, 2021. Officials from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights accompanied the Indonesian police delegation.

"We discussed the arrangement for investigating international cybercrime networks that involve criminal actors from multiple countries," Suheri informed in a written statement here on Saturday, December 4, 2021.

Besides sharing information regarding each division's role in investigating hacking cases, the officials also discussed cyber threats encountered in their countries, the brigadier general informed.

He said that the discussion was aimed at exploring new opportunities for collaboration in handling cybercrimes in Indonesia, the United States, or other countries whose nationals are implicated in the crimes, either as suspects or victims.

"We also discussed the successful cybercrime investigation that led to arrest of suspects implicated in trading hacking tools used to bypass and hack international start-up application user accounts," Suheri added.

The investigation revealed that the hacking tools had been used to target around 70 thousand user accounts in 43 countries, with the total losses pegged at Rp27 billion (around US$1.863 million), he noted.

"The ongoing investigation could unravel more victims and financial losses from the cybercrime scheme," he said.

Suheri confirmed that the Cyber Crime Directorate has summoned several cybercrime victims from New York, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles for questioning with regard to the ongoing cybercrime investigation.

Several parties, including the FBI and Indonesia's Consulate General, have assisted in the cybercrime investigation, he said.

"We have been assisted by local FBI forces and the Indonesian Consulate General in coordinating the Cyber Crime Directorate investigation," Suheri added.