span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The soon-to-be-established National Cyber Agency should not just be tasked with tackling hoaxes and fake news on social media but with overseeing all threats from the cyberworld, an information and technology expert has said.
Heru Sutadi, executive director at the Indonesia Information and Communication Technology Institute, said handling hoaxes and rumors on the internet was a simple job that could be delegated to the information and technology team at the Communications and Information Ministry.
He said a much more important task awaiting a solution was cyberattacks targeting Indonesian e-commerce and national security, such as foreign hackers trying to steal money from Indonesian banks or trying to penetrate government websites.
“Dealing with hoaxes is a simple job for an agency as big as the National Cyber Agency to handle,” told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
(Read also:Police to support national cyber agency)
Wiranto, the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister, previously said one of the agency’s tasks would be to tackle hoaxes on the internet. The minister also said the agency would coordinate existing cyberbodies at institutions and departments such as the National Police, Information and Communications Ministry and the National Intelligence Agency.
The government has increased efforts to tackle hoaxes on the internet, especially on social media, which it says can create disharmony among members of society. The police have charged a number of individuals with spreading hoaxes online.
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