One month after a cyberattack brought down government servers and Web sites in Vanuatu, frustrated officials are still using private Gmail accounts, personal laptops, pen and paper, and typewriters to run the government of Vanuatuan Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau, who came into office just a few days after the crash.
The malware attack on state networks has caused delays in communication and coordination in the Pacific Island nation of 314,000 people and 80 islands.
People have resorted to the online Yellow Pages or the hard copy phone directory to locate government phone numbers. Some offices are running from their Facebook pages and Twitter.
The problems began about a month ago, when suspicious phishing activity was first noticed in e-mails to the Vanuatu Ministry of Finance and Economic Management, said a financial analyst who works closely with the ministry’s cybersecurity teams.
The malware crashed nearly all government e-mail and Web site archives.
Many departments are still using local computer drives to store data, as opposed to Web servers or the cloud.
No official information has been released on whether ransom demands were made by the hackers.
“It is taking longer for payments [from the finance ministry] to get out, but ... we are always on Vanuatu time anyway,” said the financial analyst, who asked to remain anonymous.
Government departments have struggled to stay connected, frustrating officials, with impromptu solutions being implemented for communication between agencies and departments. Many government offices on outer islands are experiencing sharp delays in services.
“It was chaos during the first few days, but the entire government made alternative Gmail accounts or used their private e-mails. We are all using telephones and mobile phones for communication, but we are resilient in Vanuatu as a small country and can manage this,” said Olivia Finau, a communications officer at the Ministry of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology, Geo-Hazards, Environment, Energy and Disaster Management.
“Our department is communicating with the public more now with Facebook and Twitter, and we are actually getting more followers,” Finau said.
The attack did not crash civilian infrastructure, such as airline or hotel Web sites. Most tourism and business has continued as usual into the busy holiday period.
The current system can be remedied by upgrading software and putting files onto the cloud for managing, said the analyst, but local officials do not have the expertise to do this and “need outside assistance.”
The government previously reported that the attack occurred on Nov. 5, but a computer technician at the Vanuatu Office of the Government Chief Information Officer and an Australian diplomat confirmed that the crash actually came on Oct. 30.
In the first few days of the crisis, some Vanuatu authorities attributed the issue to poor weather damaging Internet infrastructure.
However, the Australian diplomat said: “We noticed there was a problem right away ... our team recognized this as having the hallmarks of a cyberattack, and not being caused by weather.”
Gaps in internal communications in the days that followed the attack compounded matters. Kalsakau formally came into power on Nov. 4, and on Nov. 5 the government officially recognized the problem.
The Australian government has made offers of assistance.
“We sent in a team to assist with that disgraceful cyberattack and the response and we are working through the process of bringing the government IT systems back up to speed,” Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy told the Vanuatu Daily.
Cyberattacks have wreaked havoc globally in the past few years and Vanuatu’s attack serves as a warning to small nations across the Pacific who have even weaker cybersecurity than Port Vila.
Over a few hours under gray skies, dozens of combat planes and helicopters roar on and off the flight deck of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, in a demonstration of US military power in some of the world’s most hotly contested waters. MH-60 Seahawk helicopters and F/A-18 Hornet jets bearing pilot call signs such as “Fozzie Bear,” “Pig Sweat” and “Bongoo” emit deafening screams as they land in the drizzle on the Nimitz, which is leading a carrier strike group that entered the South China Sea two weeks ago. US Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney, who is commanding the group, said the tour
RISING RISK: With no communication between nations flying jets closely over the South China Sea, one mistake by a pilot could quickly escalate a situation, an expert said The China Coast Guard (CCG) maintained near-daily patrols at key features across the disputed South China Sea last year, ramping up its presence as tensions over the waterway with Southeast Asian neighbors remain high, new tracking data shows. Patrols in the waters surrounding the Vanguard Bank off Vietnam, an area known for its oil and gas reserves and the site of repeated standoffs between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels, more than doubled to 310 days last year, the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said. The number of days Chinese ships patrolled near Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha
A court in Thailand sentenced a 27-year-old political activist to 28 years in prison on Thursday for posting messages on Facebook that it said defamed the country’s monarchy, while two young women charged with the same offense continued a hunger strike after being hospitalized. The court in the northern province of Chiang Rai found that Mongkhon Thirakot contravened the lese majeste law in 14 of 27 posts for which he was arrested in August last year. The law covers the king, queen and heirs, and any regent. The lese majeste law carries a prison term of three to 15 years per incident for
‘DISTURBING’: Nearly half of 16 to 21-year-olds assumed that girls either ‘expect’ or ‘enjoy’ sex which involves physical aggression, such as airway restriction One in 10 children have watched pornography by the time they are nine years old, according to “disturbing” new research by the children’s commissioner for England. The report found that one-quarter of pupils in their final year of primary school had already been exposed. It also showed much of the material being consumed by children and young people featured violence. Four out of five (79 percent) of those surveyed had seen pornography involving violence by the age of 18, while one in three young people have actively sought out depictions of sexual violence such as physical aggression, coercion and degradation. The report, by
RSS