OJK steps up cyber oversight of banks and puts third-party tech providers on the radar
The banking supervision chief says OJK IT examiners have coordinated with tech staff at every bank since last week, and that external providers can create security gaps.
Dian Ediana Rae, chief executive of banking supervision at Indonesia's financial services regulator OJK, said IT examiners have been coordinating with technology personnel at every bank since last Friday to raise vigilance against cyber threats. The regulator has also sent precautionary letters to bank directors, most recently last week, and is explicitly including third-party risk in its supervision, noting that the use of external services, including IT providers, can create security gaps.
The heightened posture follows a record year for cyber pressure on the sector. FortiGuard Labs' threat map recorded roughly 350,600 detected threat activities across Indonesia on 7 November, of which about 214,000 — some 61 percent — targeted the banking, finance and insurance sectors, according to figures cited in the interview. The regulator's move comes after a major exchange hack late last month and a recent customer-access incident at a mid-sized bank, both of which have kept operational resilience at the top of the supervisory agenda.