Cybercrime in Indonesia

Erni Sulistiyawati
English Department of State University of Jakarta
2010

Abstract Computers and the Internet have brought innumerable benefits to society. They
have revolutionized the way people work, play, and communicate. In spite of the benefits the
Internet has introduced to the global community, it is also fraught with risks associated with
undesirable elements related to misuse its usage. Computers and the Internet present new
ways to engage in old crimes, such as fraud and piracy. They also have made it possible for
criminals to create new harmful acts, like data access and interference. However, it is hard
to define what crimes are the real cybercrime. One of the reasons is because every culture
has different perception toward crimes. Therefore, a common framework must be created to
make clear boundaries of cybercrime in order to make clear regulations and laws to punish
these criminals. This paper analyses the cybercrimes types, most committed cybercrime in
Indonesia, and the law to combat cybercrime and cyber criminals.

Introduction
The impact and influence of the Internet over the past ten years has been immense.
During that time, access to the Internet has grown enormously. In 1996, 3.4 million UK
adults were online; by 2006 this had expanded to 28.5 million (Fafinski, 2007:2). The rise of
this networked society has expanded the range of information available to individuals and
changed the way in which people relate to one another in the virtual world as well as in the
physical world. However, it also has a dark side: the Internet has proven to be an influence on
criminal, as well as legitimate, activity. The dark side of the Internet involves not only fraud
and theft, pervasive pornography and pedophile acts, but also drug trafficking and criminal
organizations that are more concerned about exploitation than the kind of disruption that is
the focus of the intruder community. Therefore, the potential of the Internet to facilitate crime
is increasingly a matter for public concern.

The first recorded cybercrime happened in France in the year 1820. It was not as
sophisticated as cybercrime we know in our world today, but, still that was a crime. The fact
is that the sophistication of crime in cyber space has grown very rapidly from time to time. If
ten years ago people committed cybercrime in a much simpler activity known as computer
crime, now people committed cybercrime in a much complicated crime such as phising,

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carding, probing, stalking, virus attacking and many other illegal activities with unfamiliar
names.

It is easy to find articles and news on cybercrimes. People can find the news quite
easily in newspapers, internet, televisions, and even radio broadcasting. The news itself varies
from a simple crime such as fraud to the much bigger one such as carding. In Indonesia, most
of the news reports the most cybercrime happen in the form of fraud, forgery, and
pornography. The most recent news related with cybercrime is the case of porn video from
Luna-Ariel, two of the best Indonesian entertainers. Other news may include the rape of five
elementary students which considered as a pedophilia activity helped by the use of cyber
space technology and also the news on e-commerce which concerns much about cybercrime
activities.

Articles on cybercrime are enormously many. The article and news are very broad.
Even pornography and money laundering can be categorized as cybercrime. For some people
it is just a matter of categorization, but for some other this categorization is important due to
further commitment to combat cybercrime. With a clear categorization, it will be much easier
to identify which crimes are the real cybercrimes and to which category the crime fall. By
knowing the categorization and the type of cybercrime, people can easily identify the cyber
space crime around them and then they will understand how to report the crime to the
authority based on the cyber law and regulation. Furthermore, the discussion on the
categorization of cybercrime will give clear understanding to people on how certain crimes
belong to cybercrime. At last, by having the knowledge of cybercrime, it is hope that people
can protect themselves from such criminal actions in cyber space.

Hence, the problems in this discussion are:

- What crimes considered as cybercrime?

- How do we categorize cybercrime?
- Which type of cybercrime is mostly done by people?
- How is the regulation toward cybercrime in Indonesia?

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Discussion
Defining Cybercrime

Various terms are used to define cybercrime. It can be broadly defined as a criminal
offence that has been created or made possible by the advent of computer technology. While
seemingly a straightforward task, defining cybercrime is not easy. The difficulty lies in
properly defining what crimes should be considered as cybercrimes. There is no globally-
accepted definition of cybercrime. Experts cannot agree on whether cybercrimes should only
include computer crimes as criminal laws already exist that can be applied in the virtual
world. In addition, countries may also not agree as to what is defined as cybercrime as
conceptions of crime vary widely from culture to culture. For example, file sharing is not
considered a “crime” in many under-developed countries, while in the United States (US), the
Movie and Recording Industry is vigilant in prosecuting P2P file sharing of movies and songs
(Regan, 2005).

Forester and Morison in Asyikin (2009) define cybercrime as a criminal activity in

which computer is used as the main tool. This definition is acceptable in term of the use of
computer in the criminal activity but this definition is not enough to define cybercrime. This
definition only focuses in the computer. The fact is that cybercrime usually happen within a
network which means to commit cybercrime, the thing needed is not only computer but also
network.

Girasa (2002) provides a slight different definition on cybercrime. Girasa defines

cybercrime as a criminal activity in which computer is used as the main component. This
definition is indeed similar with the previous definition. The only difference here is the use of
computer as the main component, not as the main tool as what Forester and Morison
suggested. The word component is not far in its meaning with the word tool. Both mean part
of something which is used to help people doing thing. Therefore, the first and second
definition is considered not clear enough to define cybercrime.

The next definition is given by Tavani in Asyikin (2009). Tavani defines cybercrime
as a criminal activity which is only possible to be done with cyber technology in a cyber
space. This definition gives clearer boundaries of cybercrime. Activities such as making
computer viruses and spreading them through internet is definitely a cybercrime, meanwhile
pornography through internet is not purely a cybercrime. Based on the definition, it is still

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possible for people to spread pornography by using other media such as CD or DVD. On the
other hand virus attack can only be done through cyber space with a cyber technology. It is
impossible to do virus attack without using a computer and a network.

Categorizing Cybercrime

Cybercrime can be divided into two categories: computer-related crimes and

computer crimes (Kierkegaard, 2006:60). Computer-related crimes are traditional crimes
where criminals are just using the computer to facilitate crime. These crimes include: threats,
child pornography, fraud, gambling, extortion, and theft of intellectual property, computer-
generated counterfeit documents, threatening or annoying electronic mail, online gambling,
hate speech, and stalking. Computer-related crimes already have equivalent criminal offence
with corresponding criminal laws.

Computer Crime is a new form of crimes which involves the use of a computer as the
primary instrument to facilitate the crime and targets computer networks themselves.
Included in this category are such crimes as hacking, releasing computer contaminant viruses,
disrupting and denying computer services to an authorized user , shutting down computers
by flooding them with unwanted information (so-called ''denial of service'' attacks), and
taking, copying, altering, deleting, or destroying computer data, and software or programs.
Computer crimes require a much higher degree of technical knowledge than computer-related
crimes.

Cybercrime can also be divided into four categories: economic crimes (hacking,
computer sabotage and distribution of viruses, computer espionage, computer forgery,
computer fraud and computer manipulations instead of deceiving a human); content-related
offences (dissemination, especially via the Internet, of e.g. child pornography and racist
statements); intellectual property offences (violation of copyright and related rights and cyber
squatting); and privacy offences (illegal collection, storage, modification, disclosure).

Asyikin (2009) divides crime over internet into two main categories: cybercrime and
cyber-related crime. Cybercrime includes cyber piracy (data forgery), cyber vandalism (virus
attacking), and cybertrespass (Denial of Service). Cyber-related crime includes cyber
exacerbated crime and cyber assisted crime. The second category is not includes in
cybercrime because this crime can be done with or without cyber technology, for instance
pornography, pedophilia, and stalking.

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 There are also some other categorization of cybercrime. However, we have to decide
which categorization to be used otherwise we have to make our own categorization to clearly
define type of cybercrime. To conclude the discussion on cybercrime categorization,
cybercrime can be categorized into economic crimes, content related offences, intellectual
property offences, and privacy offenses.

Frequently Used Cybercrime

There are some crimes happen more often than the other. In cyber space, the most
frequent types of crimes are those which belong to economic crimes, content related offences,
intellectual property offences and privacy offences.

In a small research done by analyzing 10 articles on cybercrime from Indonesian

newspaper, it is found that cybercrime in Indonesia vary in type and motive. However, the
criminal seem to focus more in economic orientation. Economic crimes include distribution
of viruses, computer espionage, computer forgery, and computer fraud. Another significant
type is content related offences which embrace dissemination via internet for example
pornography and racist statement. Intellectual property offences are also appear in some cases
like violation of copyright and related rights. The last type is privacy offences in which cover
illegal collection, storage, modification, and disclosure.

Finding

From 10 articles on cybercrime and cyber criminal from online newspaper in 2010, it is found
the tendencies like this:

Intellectual
Content related Privacy
Economic crimes property
No. Articles offences offences
offences
Hacking Forgery Fraud Virus Porn Racist
1 Virus √
2 Video √
3 Hacker √
4 Pelaku Cc √
5 Pelaku Cc 2 √
6 E-commerce √
7 Pelaku Cc 3 √
8 Indonesia.. √ √ √ √
9 Modus Baru √
10 Polisi bekuk. √

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 It can be seen that the most committed cybercrime in Indonesia in 2010 is fraud and
forgery. Both crimes have economics motive. The tendencies to commit fraud and forgery
with economic motive show that Indonesian people tend to use internet as a tool to do
conventional crime. It is just a shift from a conventional crime to technology-added crime. In
Asyikin (2009) fraud and forgery are two of the type of what he called as cyber-related crime.
He said cyber-related because the crimes are still possible to be done even without cyber
technology. However it is cybercrime since it is the crime happens in cyber space.

Looking at the finding, it is not exaggerated if people say cybercrime in Indonesia has
the same motive as conventional-organized crime: economic motive. There is also other
motive like privacy offences, but this motive has low rating. Intellectual property offences
mostly happen in a country in which copying something without legal permission is
considered against law. For example, in America distributing mp3 or video without
permission from the owner is illegal, meanwhile in Indonesia that is a common activity and
considered not a crime. Therefore, an intellectual property offence in Indonesia is not
highlighted in news.

Convention and Regulation on Cybercrime and Cyber Criminal

International Convention

In 1997, the Council of Europe (COE) created a working group on cybercrime to draft
a convention on computer crime. The draft was prepared by an ad-hoc group of experts of a
"limited number of countries”. It took four years and 27 drafts before the final version was
submitted to the European Committee on Crime Problems in June of 2001. A major issue has
been that the Convention has been drafted behind closed doors. Whilst law enforcement
bodies have actively participated in the drafting process, there has been no direct input from
civil liberties bodies, representatives of industry or citizens’ interests, despite the significant
operational and financial impact it would have on industry and other private organizations
and its implications for privacy and human rights.

In November of 2001 the Council of Europe's Cybercrime Convention was signed by

30 countries. Its signatories are not limited to Europe but also include Japan, Canada, South
Africa and the United States. For the Convention to have the force of law it must also be
ratified, i.e. given effect to in the laws of a participating country, by five of those states, three
of which must be members of the Council of Europe.

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 In addition, the Council of Europe ratified several measures designed to prevent
racism and xenophobia on the Internet in 2002. It demands that member states criminalize
the dissemination of racist material using IT systems, as well threats or insults with a racist or
xenophobic motivation, the denial, gross minimization, and the approval or justification of
genocide or crimes against humanity.

The Convention is divided into 4 chapters: Chapter I defines relevant of terms;

Chapter II, the measures to be taken at the national level; Chapter III, international
cooperation and; Chapter IV, the final provisions. The Convention requires Parties to
criminalize, if they have not already done so, certain conduct that is committed through,
against, or related to computer systems and establish the procedural tools necessary to
investigate such crimes under their own national laws. Chapter II contains the measures to be
taken at the national level and is divided into substantive criminal law and procedural law.
The criminal activities are set out in the five titles of Chapter II.

This convention covers cybercrime activity including illegal access and interception,
data and system interference, misuse related of devices, computer related offences, content
related offences, and offences related to infringement of copyright.

National Regulation

National regulation on cybercrime is Law Number 11 Year 2008 concerning

Electronic Transaction and Information. This law is a legal instrument to regulate important
issues related to the use of electronic transaction, managing electronic data, and transfer of
electronic data.

This law regulates:

a. Definitions of electronic information, electronic document, electronic transaction,

electronic system and computer.
b. Substantive law on illegal access, illegal interception, data interference, system
interference, misuse of devices, computer related forgery, and computer related fraud.
c. Some procedural law in authority for law enforcer to intercept electronic system, the
obligation for law enforcers to have permits from district court before they assert or
seize suspects, and the admission of electronic evidences.

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The articles regulate cybercrime is articles 27-36. These articles focus on forbidden acts in
cyber space. This is the code of conduct to do ethical cyber, to be an ethical cyber user.

Several other laws related to cybercrime are:

a. Law Number 44 Year 2008 concerning pornography which provide provisions related
to child pornography. It prohibits every person to produce, make, reproduce,
duplicate, distribute, broadcast, import, export, offer, trade, rent, hear, watch, own,
keep, or provide child pornography.
b. Law Number 19 Year 2002 concerning Copy Rights provides provisions concerning
infringement of copyright and the penal code that regulate general criminal activities.

These laws are new laws, especially law Number 11 Year 2008. This means both
government and people still need to improve and to critically judge the laws’ contents to meet
the actual needs and to provide enough provisions for internet users.

The articles being analyzed in this paper give evidence for people that cybercrime in
Indonesia is still growing and will always be growing. Indonesian people must be careful
with their transaction and data storage in the cyber space. Although we have laws to combat
cybercrime and cyber criminal, but still, we have to keep our own treasure from intruders.

Conclusion
Cybercrime can be defined as a crime committed online with the aid of a computer
and networks. Therefore, cybercrime can be divided into four categories: economic crimes
(hacking, computer sabotage and distribution of viruses, computer espionage, computer
forgery, computer fraud and computer manipulations instead of deceiving a human); content-
related offences (dissemination, especially via the Internet, of e.g. child pornography and
racist statements); intellectual property offences (violation of copyright and related rights and
cyber squatting); and privacy offences (illegal collection, storage, modification, disclosure).

To combat cybercrime, government and authority make conventions and regulations.

International convention on cybercrime was made by Council of Europe (COE) in 1997. This
convention was signed by 30 countries in 2001. This convention covers cybercrime activity
including illegal access and interception, data and system interference, misuse related of

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devices, computer related offences, content related offences, and offences related to
infringement of copyright.

In Indonesia, national regulation on cybercrime is Law Number 11 Year 2008

concerning Electronic Transaction and Information. This law is a legal instrument to regulate
important issues related to the use of electronic transaction, managing electronic data, and
transfer of electronic data.

In 2010, most cybercrime cases in Indonesia have economic motive. Fraud and
forgery come as the two most committed crime. That evidence gives message to people to be
more careful when they are doing online transaction. When it comes to do transaction with
parties oversea, it is better to use international credit card account. Since Indonesia is already
known as a place where cybercrime happen and many people from foreign countries have
been the victims, then it is hard to use local credit card to do online overseas transactions.

References

Asyikin, Arifin Noor. 2009. Etika Komputer: Cybercrime. STIKI Malang.

Convention on Cybercrime is available at: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/

Falfinski, Stefan. 2007. UK Cybercrime Report. London: Garlik.

Regan, K. ( 2005,June 27). Supreme Court Ruling Deals Blows to P2P Firms. Ecommerce
Times. from, http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/44188.html

Symantec InternetSecurityThreatReporttrendsfor2008.VolumeXiV,publishedApril2009.

Articles:

http://www.mediaindonesia.com/read/2010/03/04/127086/75/19/Penyebar-Virus-Komputer-
Ditahan

http://showbiz.vivanews.com/news/read/158405-dua-penyebar-video--ariel-luna--dibekuk

http://terselubung.blogspot.com/2010/05/hacker-indonesia-menyerang-300-ribu.html

http://berita.liputan6.com/hukrim/201005/278893/Pelaku.Cyber.Crime.Dibekuk

http://waspada.co.id/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117825:pelaku-
kejahatan-cyber-crime-ditangkap&catid=59:kriminal-a-hukum&Itemid=91

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http://www.infoanda.com/id/link.php?lh=DwUADlQKCQAB

http://kampungtki.com/baca/14494

http://www.metrogaya.com/headline/modus-baru-pelaku-cyber-crime-indonesia-tipu-orang-
luar-negeri
http://www.harian-global.com/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=34413&Itemid=57

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