Academics Stress the Importance of Strengthening Cybersecurity

Jakarta — Indonesia’s strategic position in the Indo-Pacific region not only creates opportunities for international cooperation but also requires national preparedness to face a range of global dynamics. One threat that warrants vigilance is espionage, which is increasingly developing through digital spaces and cyber activities. Senior lecturer in International Relations at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia (FISIP UI), Edy Prasetyono, assessed that enhancing national security literacy is essential so that the public understands that espionage is a reality in interstate relations. ‘In practice, not all espionage cases are disclosed or recorded. If the issue is sensitive or related to a friendly state, sometimes it is not disclosed,’ Edy Prasetyono said in a statement received on Tuesday, 19 May 2026. According to Edy, almost all countries have national security instruments to protect strategic information from threats of data theft and foreign intelligence operations. Therefore, Indonesia needs to continuously strengthen regulation, information security governance, and capacity for protecting strategic data to keep pace with increasingly complex cross-border threat environments. The Executive Director of the ASEAN Study Center at FISIP UI added that espionage may be conducted by partner states as well as parties with different interests. He assessed that strengthening national resilience, including the protection of technology and strategic infrastructure, is an important step in safeguarding the country’s interests. ‘If a country is developing new technology, for example in energy, would they suffer losses if it were stolen through espionage? The target country of espionage is always harmed. Espionage surely threatens a country,’ he said. Head of the Masters Programme at the Department of International Relations, FISIP UI, Ali Abdullah Wibisono, said that espionage is an old phenomenon that continues to transform in line with global technological developments. ‘This activity is empirical; it is part of daily life,’ Ali said. Ali cited cases, such as the May 2026 indictment of Harry Lu Jianwang in the United States, and the disclosure by Poland’s Internal Security Agency of recruiting civilians as ‘one-use agents’ for foreign interests. He emphasised that modern espionage forms increasingly take place in cyberspace. In 2025, around 39 million Advanced Persistent Threat (APTs) threats targeted Indonesia’s digital networks. This underscores the importance of raising public awareness about digital security and personal data protection as part of national resilience in the technology era. As global connectivity increases, strengthening cybersecurity literacy, collaboration among government, academics, and society, and a culture of digital vigilance are seen as strategic steps for Indonesia to not only be an object of geopolitical dynamics but also a robust actor in safeguarding national information sovereignty.