Indonesia hotbed of cyber terror

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.