One month after a cyber-attack brought down Vanuatu’s government servers and websites, frustrated officials were still using private Gmail accounts, personal laptops, pen and paper, and typewriters to run the government of Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau, who took office just a few days after the crash.
Malware attacks on state networks have slowed communication and coordination in the Pacific island nation of 314,000 people spread across 80 islands. To find government phone numbers, people turned to the online Yellow Pages or the hard copy phone directory. Some offices were operating solely through their Facebook and Twitter pages.
According to a financial analyst who works closely with the ministry’s cybersecurity teams, the problems began about a month ago, when suspicious phishing activity was first detected in emails to the Ministry of Finance.
Almost all government email and website archives were destroyed by malware. Many departments were still storing data on local computer drives rather than web servers or the cloud. There has been no official word on whether or not the hackers demanded a ransom.
“It is taking longer for payments [from the Ministry of Finance] to get out, but … we are always on Vanuatu time anyway,” stated the financial analyst.
Government departments have struggled to stay connected, frustrating officials, with spontaneous solutions
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