Indonesian Officials Targeted in ‘State-Sponsored’ Hacking Attack Using Israeli Spyware: Report

The aims of the reported spyware attack, as well what data exactly might have been stolen from Indonesian officials remain unclear at this stage. The Indonesian government is yet to confirm the reports, which experts have described one of the “biggest” cases of cyberattacks on a government.

More than a dozen senior Indonesian government and military officials were targeted last year with spy software designed by an Israeli surveillance firm, Reuters reported Friday citing nine people familiar with the matter.

The targets reportedly included Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, senior military personnel, two regional diplomats, and advisers in Indonesia's defence and foreign affairs ministries, according to the people.

Six of the individuals who were targetted have claimed that they received an email from Apple last November, informing all of them that they were targeted by “state-sponsored attackers”. A director at an Indonesian state-backed company which sells arms to the government also received the same message from Apple, as per the report.

Apple has reportedly said that the recipients of the message were used targeting Forced Entry and Qua Dream spywares, both developed by Israeli cyber security firms.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Hartarto, a close ally of Indonesian president Joko Widodo, reportedly denied any knowledge about the purported attack and also said that the minister doesn't have his official email installed on personal devices.

The use of ForcedEntry, which makes use of a vulnerability, to break into iPhones was first made public by a cybersecurity firm Citizen Lab last September. At the time, experts described the spyware as the "most technically sophisticated” hacking attack.

Apple patched the vulnerability last September itself. The American iPhone maker also sent notifications to a “small number of users that it discovered may have been targeted” in December.

The NSO Group has denied knowledge about the spyware attacks, saying that it would be “contractually and technologically impossible” to mount such a hacking attack. The firm also maintained that it sells its products to “vetted and legitimate” government entities.

The NSO Group came under scanner last year after a joint investigation conducted by Forbidden Stories and human rights group Amnesty International found out that its Pegasus spyware had been used to target more than 50,000 phone numbers in over 50 countries since 2016.

Following the investigation, the NSO Group was placed on the ‘entity list’ of the US government, which would make it harder for American companies to conduct business with the Israeli cybersecurity firm.