Tempo is reporting that its news website has been targeted by a cyber attack again in the form of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS). This latest assault persisted throughout Tuesday (8/4/25,) following initial detection on the preceding day. The timing coincides with the release of Tempo’s print edition and premium online content titled “Tentakel Judi Kamboja” (Cambodia’s Gambling Network).
“An attack occurred yesterday between 12:00 and 13:00, with over 120 million attempted accesses on the Tempo website, which caused a temporary server outage, but they responded promptly. Yesterday, the attack originated from Germany,” said Bagja Hidayat, Tempo’s Editor-in-Chief, on Tuesday night.
Bagja further reported that the cyber attack intensified today, occurring on a larger scale. He noted that Tempo’s technology team is currently working to prevent the website and editorial system from experiencing another outage similar to the previous day’s disruption.
While Bagja could not yet confirm a direct link between this attack and the recently published investigative report on online gambling, he acknowledged the close proximity in timing.
“I cannot say if there is a connection to the gambling coverage, but the attack occurred after Tempo released the report on gambling operations in Cambodia and following the distribution of its print edition on Monday (7/4/25,) he said.
Bagja drew a comparison to the DDoS attack that Tempo experienced last month to the terror attack involving the delivery of a pig’s head to their office. He noted that the previous attack was less severe than the current one. “During the pig’s head terror on March 20, website traffic dropped, causing a slight delay in the dissemination of news about the incident compared to information that initially surfaced on social media.”
As a result of this ongoing DDoS attack, the majority of Tempo’s news content is currently inaccessible to the public. “Some sections are accessible, but generally there are errors. Subscribers also cannot access their premium Tempo Plus accounts to view exclusive content,” Bagja explained.
He extended an apology to Tempo’s readership for the inconvenience caused and assured them that the internal technical team is actively working to resolve the situation.
Heru Tjatur, the Chief Technology Officer of PT Tempo Inti Media Tbk, elaborated that this type of cyber attack, a DDoS, is executed by simultaneously sending millions of automated requests to the target server from numerous disparate sources. This overwhelms the server, making it appear as if the requests are originating from legitimate users.
Consequently, Tempo’s users and the general public encounter difficulties in accessing published information. “That is the main goal of a DDoS attack,” Tjatur said.
Monitoring systems on Tuesday afternoon recorded over 478 million access requests between 12:45 PM and 2:48 PM Western Indonesia Time (WIB). Of this substantial volume, 340 million requests were filtered through a “Managed Challenge” mechanism, 95 million were blocked entirely, and 26 million direct connections were terminated.
“If our firewall fails to identify [these malicious attempts], the potential for the attack to grow larger increases,” Tjatur cautioned, adding, “As a result, Tempo’s server can become overloaded and struggle to function.”
In the late afternoon on Tuesday, around 5:00 PM WIB, the detected intensity of the attack reportedly doubled. Tjatur revealed that the majority of the attack sources during this period originated from local internet service providers, specifically MSN and Telkomnet (part of the Telkom Group). He emphasized that all of Tempo’s online services that rely on the same digital infrastructure would be affected, rendering the presented information inaccessible to the public.
According to him, DDoS attacks targeting news websites like Tempo are not new. Similar incidents have occurred in the past, including a notable attack in September 2023 that resulted in a doubling of infrastructure costs compared to the average monthly expenditure. “Recently, the frequency of these attacks has increased dramatically, it happens almost every day.”
In February of this year, the Indonesian Cyber Media Association (AMSI) highlighted the growing prevalence of DDoS attacks targeting media companies in the current digital era. AMSI argued that the definition of violence against the press should be broadened to include these cyber assaults.
AMSI’s qualitative research revealed that DDoS attacks frequently target online media outlets that provide coverage of sensitive and potentially controversial topics, such as police corruption, online gambling operations, human rights violations, and other similar issues. This research was conducted in December 2024, involving member media outlets of AMSI that have previously been victims of digital attacks, including Tempo, KBR, Narasi, Suara.com, Project Multatuli, Pojoksatu.id, and Harapanrakyat.com.
AMSI found that one of the most severe digital attacks experienced by Narasi.tv in September 2022. During that incident, the entirety of Narasi’s website content became inaccessible due to a DDoS attack. Alarmingly, some mobile devices and social media accounts belonging to the media outlet’s personnel were also compromised by unknown individuals.
A year later, the KBR.ID website also became the target of a DDoS attack, rendering it inaccessible for seven days. In September 2023, Tempo itself experienced a significant DDoS attack in the aftermath of publishing news reports concerning online gambling and the involvement of the police.
Source: Tempo
Stock image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
