Expert defends alleged hacker

Expert defends alleged hacker

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An expert witness testified on Tuesday for defendant Dani
Firmansyah, saying that the 25-year-old had not violated the
Telecommunications Law he was being charged with for hacking into
the website of the General Elections Commission (KPU) in April.

Information technology expert I Made Wiryana of Gunadarma
University told the Central Jakarta District Court that Dani's
accessing the KPU's website database via an ordinary Internet
browser could not be considered as manipulating a
telecommunications network.

"In my opinion, the defendant just wanted to point out the
flaws in the website's security system... Furthermore, even
though the data was changed, there was no permanent damage to it,
such as crashing the website operator's hard drive," said
Wiryana, who is also a computer network researcher at Germany's
Bielefeld University.

Dani has been charged under the Telecommunications Law for
illegally accessing a telecommunications network and/or service
and causing a physical or electromagnetic disturbance to a
telecommunications service.

The law carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison
and/or a fine of Rp 600 million.

Wiryana agreed with judges and prosecutors that the
defendant's actions were ethically wrong, but noted that
Indonesia had no code of conduct for the IT profession as of yet.

Presiding judge Hamdi adjourned the trial until Oct. 19 to
hear the prosecution's sentence request.