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Indonesia denies report of Chinese hacking group breaching intelligence agency servers
- A US cybersecurity firm says a suspected Chinese state-sponsored group infiltrated Indonesian systems, but intelligence agency BIN says its servers are secure
- The group, Mustang Panda, is allegedly behind cyberattacks on Myanmar and Southeast Asian telcos
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Indonesia’s national intelligence agency has denied a report claiming its servers were breached by a suspected Chinese state-sponsored hacking group, but says it is still investigating whether other government agencies have been affected.
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Insikt Group, the threat research division of United States-based cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, last week said malware had infiltrated the systems of at least 10 Indonesian ministries and agencies, including the intelligence agency, Badan Intelijen Negara (BIN).
It made the discovery in April and notified Indonesian authorities about the intrusions in June and July, it said, adding that the malware was operated by a Chinese group called Mustang Panda.
Mustang Panda has been known to have targeted governments and telcos in Southeast Asia.
An article published on Recorded Future’s news site, The Record, said Indonesian authorities had not responded to Insikt’s notification, though it added that a source said the government had taken steps to identify and clean the infected systems.
Even after this, however, Insikt researchers confirmed that hosts inside Indonesian government networks were still communicating with the Mustang Panda malware servers.
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