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The government is currently accelerating its efforts to establish a national cybersecurity agency. This idea to have a nationwide cybersecurity watchdog has been brewing for quite some time. It was mentioned for the first time in 2014, then President Joko Widodo mentioned the notion of ā€œBadan Siber Nasionalā€ (BSN) in a speech in 2015 and there were some discussions of a draft regulation in 2016. During his first cabinet summit of 2017, President Joko Widodo pushed BSN as a top priority program and has been insisting that his ministers complete BSNā€™s establishment ā€œimmediatelyā€.

To date, there has been active inter-ministry discussion on a new presidential regulation to establish BSN, and it is expected that the regulation will be issued in the next month or two. BSNā€™s main roles will include nationwide protection of all cyber activities, oversight of and a coordination center for cyber-related government agencies/offices, and prevention/suppression of cyber threats to or attacks against the country. It remains to be seen how the government will regulate BSNā€™s intelligence or surveillance authorities in conducting its duties (especially in relation to the private sector and individuals) and whether or not BSN will have ā€œenforcementā€ capabilities. It will also be interesting to see how BSN will interact with other existing agencies which have similar/identical purposes, including the Ministry of Defenseā€™s State Cypher Agency, the National Intelligence Boardā€™s Cyber Intelligence Unit, the Indonesian Police Forceā€™s Cyber Crime Directorate and the Ministry of Communication and Informaticsā€™ Indonesia Security Incident Response Team on Internet Infrastructure/Coordination Center.

Author

Hendronoto Soesabdo has been a partner in the Commercial Dispute Resolution Practice Group of Hadiputranto, Hadinoto & Partners since 2011. He focuses on compliance and pre-dispute matters, litigation and arbitration matters. Mr. Soesabdo has various complex and high profile court (from District Court to Supreme Court) and arbitration cases in his portfolio. He is one of the leaders in his profession, were he is one of the National Board of the Indonesian Law Graduates Association (ISHI) and he is recently appointed as the vice chairman of the Indonesian Bar Association- Central Jakarta (IKADIN). For two consecutive terms, he's also among the National Board members of the Indonesian Advocates Association (Peradi).