Jakarta, 27 July 2023 – As the number of internet users in Indonesia grows, the number of cyber attacks continues to rise. In 2022, Indonesia ranked 3rd in the world in terms of the number of data breach accounts.
“The financial sector is the second most targeted by cyber attacks." However, in general, it has the largest impact on financial losses,” M. Zulkifli Salim, PhD, Deputy Director of the Directorate of Research at the Department of Banking Regulation and Development, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) told participants in a discussion during the Digital Transformation Indonesia Conference & Expo (DTI-CX 2023) at JIEXPO Convention Centre & Theatre.
He went on to add that this needs to be addressed by developing digital resilience policies to serve as a guide for banks to prepare, encounter, and recover after experiencing disruptions in technology operations or cyber disruptions/incidents by minimizing customer losses, reputation damage, and financial losses.
As a sector primarily reliant on customer trust, one of the banking industry’s initiatives to establish digital resilience is prioritizing data protection. This is also reflected in the Indonesian Fintech Association’s Annual Members Survey in 2022/2023 on fintech players’ efforts to improve cybersecurity. Secure digital identities are considered a key element in dealing with personal data misuse and cybercrime.
Adrian Anwar, Managing Director of VIDA, said, “Banks can increase trust by utilizing technology that includes speed, size, and security to authenticate users’ identities, making them reliable and preventing fraudsters from stealing identities. VIDA utilizes population data, face recognition techniques (biometrics), and AI-based liveness detection to enhance accuracy and verify secure and strong identities, thus preventing fraud and digital identity theft.”
As VIDA contributes to boosting digital banking security, Dr. Kartina Sury, Senior Fellow of the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS), underscored the importance of how all industry players can collaboratively contribute to establishing digital resilience. “Digitization has transformed Indonesia’s banking system. All parties need to engage in the same digital infrastructure to address the challenges of digital resilience. One thing that everyone needs to anticipate is ensuring inclusion and digital financial literacy while leaving no one behind,” she added.
The fintech industry has improved financial inclusion by making financial services more accessible when compared to conventional financial services. The significance of digital financial inclusion and literacy is also represented in Indonesia’s 25-Year Digital Transformation Roadmap, which highlights human resource development in 2023-2024.
“We all agree that technology is rapidly evolving, but when human resources are not completely equipped, there is a great risk of legal infractions in the field of electronic transactions. This is due to the public's shortcomings or lack of knowledge of digitization,” said Baso Saleh M.I.Kom, Acting Head of Education and Training Center of the Communication and Information Technology Ministry.
In the end, building a robust and secure digital resilience ecosystem requires the collaboration of all industry stakeholders, regulators, and society to maintain trust in the banking world.