House should quickly approve cyber law: Experts

House should quickly approve cyber law: Experts

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government and the House of Representatives should quickly
deliberate on and approve the bill on electronic information and
transactions as it will be a crucial tool to fight rampant cyber
crime in the country, an expert says.

The bill on electronic information and transactions, when
enacted into law, will regulate Indonesia's electronic and
transaction systems, such as fund transfer, e-payment, electronic
data interchange (EDI) transactions, e-mail transactions and
credit card transactions.

"The sooner the government and the House debate and approve
the bill, the better, as credit card and transaction fraud are
rampant in Indonesia as there is no cyber law at present," Budi
Raharjo, the director for Industry & Information Technology
Research & Development at the Bandung Institute of Technology
(ITB), told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

There is no accurate data on credit card and transaction fraud
recorded by the Jakarta Police.

However, a report from the Indonesian Credit Card Association
(AKKI) shows that credit card fraud caused a total loss of about
Rp 60 billion (US$7.1 million) last year -- 50 percent higher
than Rp 40 billion in 2002.

Budi further said that with the presence of cyber law,
businesspeople would be encouraged to start doing business
through the Internet with the implementation of e-commerce.

"Currently, many businesspeople are reluctant to do business
online as they are afraid of fraudsters. The presence of cyber
law will provide the legal certainty that businesspeople need to
do their business online," he said.

The Office of the State Minister of Communications and
Information, along with Bank Indonesia, the National Police, the
Attorney General's Office, technology experts and associations,
completed the bill on electronic information and transactions,
and delivered it to the State Secretary on April 8.

The bill is now sitting at the State Secretariat, waiting for
the approval of President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

"Once the bill is approved, it will go to the House of
Representatives for deliberation," said deputy assistant to the
Office of the State Minister of Communications and Information,
Yappi Manafe, as quoted by Antara.

Yappi said that hopefully, the House would consider the bill
crucial enough to include in its next sitting in May.

If approved by the government and the House, the bill will be
the first cyber law in the country.

At present, there is a cyber crime division, set up in May
last year, at the Jakarta Police. Yet, without a cyber law, it
will be ineffective as police cannot do any more than just
pressure suspected cyber fraudsters to sign a statement pledging
to stop committing such crimes.