Stevani Wijaya, Jakarta – A man from the East Java town of Madiun was named a criminal suspect on Friday for allegedly assisting an internet user known as Bjorka who is being sought by Indonesian authorities for government data breaches.
Muhammad Agung Hidayatullah, 21, was arrested at his home on Wednesday evening by officers in plain clothes, but the National Police said they won't put him in detention.
Officers in Madiun seized two cellular phones, a SIM card, and an identity card from Agung.
"The suspect is not detained because he's cooperative with investigators," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo said in Jakarta.
He said the suspect is charged under the Electric Information and Transaction Law but didn't go into details.
But it seems the police have made no progress in tracking the real target, a user of the social media platform Telegram with the alias Bjorka who claimed to have gained access to government's sensitive data and broken into the president's online correspondence.
Bjorka has leaked the personal data of several top government officials including Communication and IT Minister Johnny Plate and Chief Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.
The personal record contains cellphone numbers, citizenship identification number, and their Covid-19 vaccination status.
In one post, Bjorka wrote that he has breached into President Joko Widodo's correspondence and gained access to State Intelligence Agency letters addressed to the president dated between 2019 and 2021.
The agency has denied such claims, saying that its communication system with the president remains safe and secure.
Police said the suspect in Madiun has facilitated Bjorka on the Telegram platform, but it's not clear what exactly his role was.
Local media reports said Agung is a high school graduate with no IT background who sells cold drinks to make a living. He reportedly has no computer or a laptop of his own.
Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/east-java-man-accused-of-being-accomplice-to-bjorka-data-theft-rin