Cyber Crisis Readiness Forum Held in Makassar

MAKASSAR — ITSEC Asia Tbk and the Indonesian Digitalization and Cybersecurity Association (ADIGSI) held a Gerakan National Ketahanan Siber roadshow in Makassar on Thursday, June 25, 2026, to equip industry leaders for cyber crises. The event came as Indonesia’s digital threat landscape grew more crowded, with the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) recording more than 5.16 billion traffic anomalies throughout 2025.

Cyber crisis readiness now matters as much as prevention

The BSSN figure sends a message that is hard to ignore. Large volumes of anomalous traffic are not just statistics on a dashboard. They point to a real risk of attacks, system disruption, data leaks, and operational fallout that can reach customer service and a company’s reputation.

At this point, many organizations still place most of the burden on their IT teams. But when a cyber incident hits, fast decisions are often needed at the management level. Who speaks to the public? Which systems should be isolated? How should customers be updated? When can services be restored? Those are not technical questions alone.

ITSEC Asia President Director Patrick Dannacher underscored that point during the forum. He said cyber threats have already entered boardrooms and can no longer be treated as a technical issue left only to IT staff.

“When an incident occurs, the impact can spread to business operations, customer services, and the organization’s reputation. That is why preparedness for a cyber crisis cannot be the responsibility of the IT team alone,” Patrick said in a press statement on Friday, June 26, 2026.

He added that the ability to respond to incidents is just as important as the ability to prevent them. Simple words. Big consequences. Many companies already install security controls, but fewer have a clean procedure ready for the moment an attack actually breaks through.

Why the forum targets leaders, not just technicians

The Makassar GNKS forum was designed to bring together industry leaders, cybersecurity practitioners, and other stakeholders. The aim was not to teach technical terms from scratch, but to help participants map risks, design protections, and make faster decisions once a crisis arrives.

Patrick said participants were expected to leave with something they could actually use. Not just a slide deck that gets stored and forgotten. Forums like this usually open space to discuss real scenarios: a locked server, leaked sensitive data, internal access misuse, or a service system suddenly going offline.

That is where the losses get expensive. Time stops. Customers wait for answers. Internal teams need command and control. If the response structure is not clear, damage can grow even when the company already owns advanced security tools.

That is why ITSEC and ADIGSI frame cyber resilience as an organizational capability, not just a piece of software or hardware. Resilience means knowing what to do when prevention fails. There must be a procedure. A chain of command. Simulations. Decisions that can be made without panic.

BSSN’s role: the digital economy needs collective readiness

From the regulator’s side, BSSN Deputy for Cyber and Crypto Security in the Economic Sector, Slamet Aji Pamungkas, stressed that capacity-building is central to protecting the sustainability of Indonesia’s digital economy. The message fits a reality in which public services, transactions, and office work increasingly depend on digital systems.

“The broader use of digital technology needs to be matched by stronger capability to face various cyber risks. This effort requires the involvement of all stakeholders so Indonesia’s digital space can grow in a healthy, secure, and trustworthy way,” Slamet said.

His remarks point to one clear fact: cybersecurity cannot be placed on one institution’s shoulders. Companies, government agencies, industry groups, and system users all sit in the same defense chain. If one link weakens, the others feel it too.

In North Kalimantan, for example, local authorities have raised similar concerns. The province’s Communication, Informatics, Statistics and Encryption Office previously urged civil servants and residents to strengthen vigilance against data breach risks. The office even called the protection of civil servant and citizen data a priority, while asking affected units to coordinate quickly with BSSN’s incident response team.

The pattern is clear. Regions are starting to treat digital security as a matter of public service and public trust, not just a server-room issue.

Why Makassar was chosen for cyber crisis readiness

ADIGSI Chairman Firlie Ganinduto said awareness of cybersecurity needs to reach more regions and industries. In his view, many organizations already understand that digital security matters. The real challenge is turning that awareness into action.

“Through GNKS, we want to present a practical forum so participants can learn from one another and take home results they can apply in their own organizations,” Firlie said.

Makassar was chosen because of its strategic role as one of the economic growth centers in eastern Indonesia. That means the forum is not limited to one city. Its message can spread to other companies operating in the eastern part of the country, where digital services and business activity continue to expand.

For many companies, the cost of a cyber incident arrives in layers. First, systems break down. Then staff work overtime. After that, reputation comes under pressure. Sometimes recovery costs end up higher than the prevention budget that should have been set aside much earlier. That is why management training matters.

Programs like GNKS also highlight simple things that often get neglected: risk mapping, security design that fits the type of business, and decision-making drills for emergencies. Those tasks sound administrative. But when an incident hits, they often decide how fast recovery begins.

Given the traffic anomaly numbers recorded by BSSN in 2025, the urgency is obvious. Organizations can no longer wait for a major attack before drafting procedures. Cyber crisis readiness is not about whether an incident will happen, but when it will happen and how prepared the organization will be when it does.

“The goal is simple: help organizations become more prepared,” Patrick said. That line captures the forum’s core message — not to scare people, but to equip leaders with the steps they need when digital systems are shaken.

Quick summary

1. ITSEC Asia and ADIGSI held the GNKS forum in Makassar on June 25, 2026, to help industry leaders face cyber crises.

2. BSSN recorded more than 5.16 billion traffic anomalies in 2025, underscoring the growing need for incident response.

3. The forum stressed that cybersecurity must be understood by organizational leaders, not only IT teams.

Short FAQ: Why should industry leaders join? Because decisions during an incident are usually made at management level. What does a forum like GNKS offer? Practical steps for mapping risks and responding faster to digital disruptions.