Arientha Primanita & Farouk Arnaz – Indonesian Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring is playing down the hacking of the National Police Web site by an apparent Islamic extremist, saying the incident had been over-hyped.

Tifatul said it was only the "wallpaper" of the police's Web site that had been targeted. "Why did it become big news?" he asked journalists on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the National Police Cyber Crime unit told the Jakarta Globe that they were investigating who was behind the attack on www.polri.go.id, after it was defaced with a message urging Islamic warriors to "rise up."

Another message read: "There is no God except Allah. Muhammad's servant and messenger of God." It also urged to beware those who were against Islam and the interpretation of Islam.

Tifitul would not say that the security of Indonesian government Web sites was weak but did admit there had been numerous hacking or hacking attempts previously.

"This is not the first time – based on our calculations, [government] Web sites have been hacked for 3 million times," he said. Previous hacking attacks on the police's Web sites have lambasted the institution for corruption.

In 2008, the Jakarta Police's Traffic Management Center Web site was hacked. One of the messages read: "The National Police was the third most corrupt organization in 2005, second most in 2006, and the most corrupt organization in 2007. Where is the justice? Today, all Indonesian Police websites are OWNED!"