Vanuatu government’s sites were offline for an entire month

While hacker attacks have been around for a while, their increased severity has put in question governments’ preparedness to match the technical advancement of the hackers with government online security infrastructure.

Yet another massive attack took place in early November, when the small island nation of Vanuatu became the target of a hacker group. While it hasn’t been possible to estimate the full scale of damage yet, it is estimated that approximately 70% of all of the government services have been restored to their pre-attack ability. 

According to government officials, it has become clear that the attacks targeted government email accounts, citizens couldn’t renew their driver’s licenses or pay taxes, and medical and emergency information became inaccessible. As a response, most of the damaged services were carried out in pen and paper. 

Experts from nearby Australia, who sent their specialists to assist repelling the attack, noted that the initial attack was a ransomware attack. Another argument in favor of this position is the fact that New York county experienced a similar ransomware attack a month earlier. More specifically, Suffolk County detected a ransomware attack and responded by shutting down its computer systems.The government divisions under attack included the police to social services.