The Ministry of Communication and Informatics Blocks 683 Government and Education Websites Infiltrated by Online Gambling: Details Inside

The Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) has blocked 683 government and educational institution websites infiltrated with online gambling content. Hundreds of these sites were discovered between January 1, 2022, and February 13, 2023.

The Director General of Informatics Applications at the Ministry of Kominfo, Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, stated that 461 sites with the *.go.id* domain and 222 sites with the *.ac.id* domain have been blocked. According to Semuel, the handling of negative internet content on the *.go.id* and *.ac.id* domains was based on crawling results and public reports.

"We have contacted the domain administrators whose sites were infiltrated with gambling content and temporarily deactivated the misused domain names," said Semuel, as quoted from a press release on Monday, February 13, 2023.

Semuel stated that the Ministry of Kominfo has the authority to temporarily deactivate domain names under its supervision that are experiencing misuse. This is in accordance with the Minister of Communication and Informatics Regulation Number 5 of 2015, which stipulates that every Electronic System Provider must operate the Electronic System reliably, securely, and responsibly.

This handling, according to Semuel, is also in accordance with Government Regulation Number 71 of 2019 concerning the Organization of Electronic Systems and Transactions, which regulates the responsibility of organizers for the electronic systems they manage.

"We remind various national and regional ministries and institutions to be responsible for the operation of the sites they manage," said Semuel.

Currently, Kominfo is collaborating with the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) and the Indonesian Internet Domain Name Registrar (PANDI) to handle websites experiencing misuse.

Semuel said that the vulnerability of government websites with the *.go.id* domain to online gambling content is due to a lack of cybersecurity understanding in the relevant institutions. Furthermore, he continued, another cause is that many domains are no longer actively used by government institutions, making them easy targets for embedding gambling content.

Therefore, Kominfo urges *.go.id* domain administrators to migrate their websites to the Provisional National Data Center (PDNS) accessible via pdn.layanan.go.id.

Based on data from the Directorate General of Informatics Applications of the Ministry of Kominfo, the misuse of government and educational institution websites for gambling content has been detected since April 2022.

The highest number of findings in January 2023 was 268 government websites and 152 educational institution websites experiencing misuse.