Police say they have arrested a man in Madiun, East Java believed to be Bjorka, a hacker that has embarrassed the Indonesian government in the past few weeks. Yet according to the man’s family, he doesn’t even own a computer.
The National Police yesterday confirmed the arrest of 21-year-old MAH on Wednesday, though it stressed that he is currently under questioning and has not been formally charged with any criminal offense.
MAH’s mother said she was shocked by the arrest as her son, who works at an iced drinks stall, only owns one cell phone.
“There is no computer [at home], and he only has one cell phone,” she said, adding that MAH lives with his parents, and their home does not have home internet.
“[Police] arrested him when he was at work.”
Following MAH’s arrest, Bjorka remains active as he posted more leaked data online.
Separately, an Instagram user out of nowhere accused a 17-year-old from Cirebon, West Java as Bjorka, causing the teen distress as he had to deal with the ensuing online outrage. The teenager said he could not have been Bjorka as he is just a video editor.
Bjorka is the handle used by a hacker in an online forum, who in recent weeks has listed breached data from Indonesia for sale, including 1.3 billion Indonesian SIM card registration data, containing citizens’ KTP (ID cards) and KK (Family Cards) details.
Miffed by what he described as government idiocy and weak cybersecurity measures, Bjorka, who seems to fancy himself a defender of the Indonesian people, leaked more sensitive data, including documents and letters to President Joko Widodo and the private information of senior officials.
His antics prompted the government to finally announce the imminent ratification of the Personal Data Protection Bill, which has stalled in parliament since 2014. The bill aims to strengthen cybersecurity in Indonesia.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Coordinating Legal, Political, and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said authorities have leads to uncover Bjorka’s identity, which the hacker brushed off as “complete bullshit.”
As of now, there doesn’t appear to be any credible clues for Bjorka’s identity, nor is there any indication as to whether or not he is even in Indonesia at all.
