Deputy Minister of Defense M. Herindra has highlighted the importance of raising awareness on cyberwarfare since it can cause more damage than a physical war.

“The concept of threat has changed, from what was originally a physical war, now the destruction of a nation’s resilience can be penetrated through cyber networks. The impact of the damage from this cyberwar is more severe than the destruction caused by physical war,” he said while delivering the keynote address on “Defense Industry Collaboration: For Better Economy and Stronger Defense” at the Indo Defense 2022 Expo & Forum at JIExpo Kemayoran, here on Thursday.

According to Herindra, a war that uses cyber media would have a more severe impact than a physical war because it would directly attack state ideology. Thus, such a war could cause mental, economic, social, cultural, political, and even ideological destruction.

Therefore, the Indonesian people, especially those involved in the national defense sector, need to increase their mastery over technology to protect Indonesia from cyberattacks, he said.

In addition to cyberwarfare, Herindra outlined a spectrum of other defense threats that the Indonesian people need to be alert against, including violations of state sovereignty, theft of natural resources (SDA) at sea, radicalism, threats of biological attacks, and natural disasters.

“Another spectrum of threats includes violations of sovereignty, theft of natural resources at sea, radicalism, and biological threats, as well as natural disasters. Everything has changed from traditional (threats) to non-traditional,” he noted.

However, Herindra also reminded the Indonesian people not to ignore traditional wars, such as physical warfare. He said that there is still potential for traditional wars as evidenced by the current turbulent war between Ukraine and Russia.

“As a nation, we must not forget. Sometimes, we are given the knowledge that in the future, there will be no physical war, traditional or conventional war. But it happened,” he said.

Source: Antara News