REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The National Cyber Agency (BCN) is expected to be established in August 2016, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan stated.
"Probably, next month, the agency will be ready," Minister Pandjaitan said here, Thursday.
The process of establishing the agency has reached its final stage, he added.
The government had planned to set up the agency since 2015.
Earlier, Communication and Informatics Minister Rudiantara had stated that Minister Pandjaitan was coordinating to set up the agency.
The communication and informatics ministry has prepared the standardization process for the cyber agency in dealing with sectors, such as finance and banking, transportation, energy, and mineral resources.
In the meantime, a cyber security expert recently said Indonesia urgently needs to establish the BCN.
Pratama Dahlian Persadha, former chairman of a team of the State Code Agency for Presidential Information Technology Security, said Indonesia was lagging behind neighboring countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, in the area of cyber security.
"Singapore has already established a BCN since 2009, not to mention the United States, where President Obama has direct access to every matter related to cyber security," Pratama remarked.
Pratama, who is chairman of the Communication and Information System Security Research Center, said Indonesia is not like several European countries, with a small land territory and mono-ethnic nationality.
"Indonesia has several data on strategies and covert information, including about state secrets, which need to be safeguarded, to preserve the nation's pluralism and state integrity," he affirmed.
Currently, part of the data has been saved digitally. Without adequate protection, the data can become a potential threat, he pointed out.
"Later, the BCN's duty should be more than just to protect data. The main task of the BCN would be to secure Indonesia's cyberspace," he noted.
"The BCN should function on the similar lines as the armed forces in the cyber world," Pratama added.
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