Jakarta. Cybersecurity expert Alfons Tanujaya has called for a decisive response from the government to online gambling operators who have hacked government websites in retaliation for the crackdown on online gambling.

“If this is a form of resistance because the government is cracking down on online gambling, it must be confronted. Online gambling has been highly destructive to society,” Alfons told Beritasatu.com on Friday.

He explained that recent hacks on several government websites were due to inadequate website maintenance.

“Indiscipline in website maintenance can trigger attacks on government websites. Security gaps that should be regularly maintained and updated are left unpatched, leading to hacks and defacement,” he explained.

As the founder of IT consultancy firm Vaksincom, Alfons applauded the government’s efforts to eradicate online gambling and encouraged continued effective measures against it.

The government has established an Online Gambling Eradication Task Force, blocked IP addresses hosting online gambling from Cambodia and the Philippines, and taken action against online gambling operators within Indonesia.

Additionally, the government has engaged with Google to form a collaborative platform to combat online gambling and conducted SMS blasts with educational messages.

“SMS blasts are part of digital and financial literacy efforts for the community, which will have a long-term impact if accompanied by other literacy activities. They won’t produce immediate results,” Alfons said.

Several central and local government websites were hacked on Thursday, in what appears to be a retaliatory attack against the government's crackdown on gambling apps and websites.

A page on the Religious Affairs Ministry's website displayed a message promoting an online gambling app until it was replaced with an "under repair" notification.

Similar attacks targeted the municipal government websites of Tulungagung and Malang in East Java, as well as a state vocational school in Depok, West Java.

Muhammadiyah University in Lampung and Piksi Ganesha Polytechnic also had their websites compromised by gambling apps.