The Indonesian government is probing telecommunications providers on their involvement in the alleged attempt by Australian spies to tap the phones of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and people close to him. ICT minister Tifatul Sembiring has asked the country's ten mobile operators to look into the matter. He further said that if they are found to have played a role in the tapping, they can be charged under the 2008 Information and Electronic Transactions Law, the Jakarta Post reports. "I have also asked the operators to check the possibility of employees being involved. After, we will also run checks on the operators' software systems to check for the presence of any spyware such as 'backdoor' or 'botnet'," Tifatul said. Indonesia and Australia are currently embroiled in a diplomatic row following reports that Australian intelligence tried to tap the mobile phones of the President and several people close to him in 2009.
