Indonesia hotbed of cyber terror

Indonesia has not only been accused of being a fertile ground for terrorists, but now has to deal with a new black mark, cyber crime.

Based on research completed last year, Texas-based security company ClearCommerce ranks Indonesia second after the Ukraine in cases of cyberfraud.

The research, conducted from mid-2000 until the end of 2001, and involving 1,137 merchants, six million transactions and 40,000 customers, revealed that 20 percent of the total number of credit card transactions on the Internet from Indonesia were cyberfraud.

A spokesperson for the information technology crime division at the National Police Headquarters here, established in 2001, said they had received as many as 104 reports of cyberfraud since October 2002.

The value of cyberfraud transaction ranged between US$100 and $13,000.

The police identified Yogyakarta, Semarang, Bandung and Jakarta as hotbeds of cyberfraud. Apparently there are several syndicates thriving in Indonesia.

The Indonesian Association of Internet Providers (APJII) said that because of cyberfraud the number of online merchants blocking Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that originate in Indonesia had increased greatly over the past couple of years. Online transactions either to or from Indonesia face similar risks.--JP.