Jakarta, Indonesia Sentinel — The official website of Indonesia’s National Traffic Management Center (NTMC) of the National Police (Polri) was reportedly hacked on Wednesday, November 13, turning the site into an online gambling platform. The NTMC Polri website, which typically serves as an integrated hub for information and communication, providing real-time traffic updates, instead displayed content related to online betting.
According to CNN Indonesia, as of 9:52 AM local time on Wednesday, the NTMC Polri homepage no longer showed its usual traffic updates. Instead, it featured online gambling content, including ads for sports betting and even branding itself as the “Best Gambling Site in Asia.” By around 2:30 PM, however, the website became inaccessible, displaying a message that read: “Sorry, you have been blocked. You are unable to access ntmcpolri.info,” indicating that access to the site had been restricted.
In response to the incident, the Indonesian National Police Headquarters addressed the situation, acknowledging the potential cyberattack. Police spokesperson Inspector General Sandi Nugroho confirmed that the Traffic Corps (Korlantas) is currently working with the Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) to investigate the alleged hacking.
“We’ve heard about the incident from our colleagues, but officially, we are coordinating with Korlantas and Bareskrim to verify it,” Nugroho told reporters at the National Police Headquarters on Wednesday.
He urged the public to await the results of the investigation, which is being conducted internally by Korlantas and Bareskrim. “We’ll provide updates as soon as new information is available,” he added.
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The suspected hacking of the NTMC Polri website comes amid a broader crackdown on online gambling by Indonesian authorities under the leadership of Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo. During a meeting with the House of Representatives’ Commission III on Monday, November 11, Listyo revealed that the police had arrested 9,096 suspects linked to online gambling operations over the past four years.
“We have undertaken various efforts, and between 2020 and 2024, we have apprehended 9,096 suspects involved in these cases,” Listyo stated.
In the same period, police also blocked 5,991 bank accounts and shut down 68,108 gambling websites. Listyo further disclosed that between the first and third quarters of 2024, authorities detected cash flows amounting to Rp283 trillion (approximately $18 billion) associated with online gambling activities.
The investigation into the NTMC website breach is ongoing, with further details expected to be released as authorities continue their probe.
(Raidi/Agung)
