The WhatsApp account of Kanal Bali journalist, Rofiki Hasan, was hacked on Monday, May 20, 2024. The digital attack occurred late that evening, around 11:00 PM WIB.
The People's Water Forum (PWF) activities were held in Denpasar, Bali, over three days in mid-May 2024. Rofiki, a senior journalist based in Denpasar, assisted PWF as a media liaison, coordinating with journalists who were covering the press conference for the event.
That night, Rofiki suddenly lost access to his WhatsApp account. His phone displayed a prompt to sign in. He deleted the WhatsApp app and tried to reinstall it using the same number. Strangely, he was unable to receive the confirmation code via SMS, and a notification informed him that his number was already being used on another device.
He attempted to reactivate his WhatsApp account but still did not receive any confirmation message. Rofiki then sent a message to his own number, but the message only showed a single tick, indicating it had not been delivered. The following day, he tried again but with no success. It became clear that his WhatsApp account had been hacked. Finally, Rofiki consulted with SAFEnet and received guidance on how to recover his account.
His WhatsApp account was finally restored and became usable again on Friday morning, May 24, 2024. The action attacker cannot be identified until now. It was also suspicious action since among the media liaison, only him that experienced this digital attack. It is suspect just because only him who represent the media or active journalist.