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Airlangga's official email not compromised by spyware: spokesperson
In a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Friday, the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister said that the official email account of Airlangga was not installed on the minister's private cellular phone.
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Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto speaks during a public lecture at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies as former secretary-general of ASEAN Ong Keng Yong listens on Aug. 29. (The Jakarta Post/Office of Coordinating Economic Minister)
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esponding to a report that a spy software designed by an Israeli surveillance firm has been used to target more than a dozen senior Indonesian government and military officials including Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, a spokesperson for the senior minister said that the attack had likely missed its target.
In a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Friday, the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister said that the official email account of Airlangga was not installed on the minister's private cellular phone.
"Up until now, there has been no notification regarding the delivery of the spyware to the official email address," the ministry's spokesperson said.
The ministry also said that Airlangga was also in possession of a number of cellular phones including non-iPhone brands.
Reuters reported on Friday morning that more than a dozen senior Indonesia government and military officials were targeted last year with spy software designed by an Israeli surveillance firm, according to nine people with knowledge of the matter.
Six of the individuals told Reuters they were targeted themselves.
The targets included Airlangga, senior military personnel, two regional diplomats and advisers in Indonesia's defense and foreign ministries, according to the people.
Six of the Indonesian officials and advisers targeted told Reuters they received an email message from Apple Inc. in November 2021 telling them that Apple believed officials were being "targeted by state-sponsored attackers".
Apple has not disclosed the identities or number of users targeted. The company declined to comment for this story.
Apple and security researchers have said the recipients of the warnings were targeted using ForcedEntry, an advanced piece of software that has been used by Israeli cyber-surveillance vendor NSO Group to help foreign spy agencies remotely and invisibly take control of iPhones. Another Israeli cyber-firm, QuaDream, has developed a nearly identical hacking tool, Reuters has reported.
