Bjorka v Oligarchs: One Hacker on a Mission to Rattle Indonesia

TheIndonesia.id - Bjorka has become somewhat of an enigma and controversy in the last few days. And no, we’re not talking about a Swedish word which translates to birch tree, but this Bjorka is a username used by one hacker who has been leaking personal information of top politicians and leading figures in Indonesia.

Among some of the hacker’s most notorious actions took place on Saturday, September 10, when they released a series of documents which was claimed to have been sent to President Joko Widodo by the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

As reported by Suara.com, the leaked file contained more than 679,000 documents – some of which are confidential. Bjorka said the documents were collected in September this year.

Afterwards, Bjorka went on a doxing spree which targeted a number of ministers and top figures in the country.

The hacker leaked data containing personal information of Minister of Communication and Informatics Johnny Plate, speaker of the House of Representatives Puan Maharani, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Erick Thohir, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, and chief of the National Police Listyo Sigit Prabowo,

They didn’t stop there and continued to leak data that belong to Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian, Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan, as well as Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD.

Among the information revealed in the doxings were full name, resident identity number (NIK), address, education, religion, blood type, and vaccine administration codes.

The revelation ruffled some feathers in Indonesia.

The data suggested that some of the aforementioned names (Maharani and Pandjaitan) had yet to get the booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and it didn’t sit well with many Indonesians because the cabinet has made booster dose mandatory in the country.

Speaking to Suara.com, cyber security expert Alfons Tanujaya said kebocoran data or data leak is nothing new in Indonesia. However, state agencies have a tendency to deny that it actually happens.

“So what should [we] expect if [the government] fails to acknowledge it? How could anything change?” Tanujaya said on Monday, September 12.

Prior to leaking officials’ data, Bjorka had also got a hold of data containing information about internet provider IndiHome’s customers, SIM card registration, and a set of data allegedly owned by the General Elections Commission (KPU) that included information including NIK.

Tanujaya said although the leak of personal data of millions of Indonesians is illegal, the event should shine a light on the real condition of data protection in the country.

“What Bjorka does to leak the data is against the law, but it shows the top officials what happens to personal data and what can be done by the owner of the leaked data,” he explained.