Semarang, C Java (ANTARA News) - Indonesia urgently needs to establish a national cyber agency (BCN), a cyber security expert said here on Wednesday.

Pratama Dahlian Persadha, once chairman of a team of the State Code Agency (Lemsaneg) for Presidential Information Technology Security, said Indonesia was behind neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore in cyber security system.

"Singapore already has National Cyber Agency since 2009, not to mention the United States, where every affair of cyber security has direct access to President Obama," Pratama said.

Pratama, who is chairman of the Communication and Information System Security Research Center (CISSReC), said Indonesia is not like many European countries with small land territory and mono ethnic nationality.

Indonesia have many data about strategies, secrets including state secrets that need to be safeguarded to preserve the national pluralism and state integrity," he said.

Now part of the data have been saved digitally. Without adequate protection , the data are potential to become a threat, he said.

"Later, the duty of BCN would be more than just to protect data. The main duty of BCN would be to secure Indonesian cyberspace," he said, adding, "BCN would be like the armed force in cyber world."

The people now depend much on the internet in communications, exchanging information, shopping and in using means of transport, he said.

"Without adequate security protection the people could suffer badly ," he said.

It would be difficult if strategic infrastructure like arsenals, military locations, health, education and banks , are run by a single agency, he said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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