Pacific Island Nation of Vanuatu Has Been Knocked Offline For More Than a Month

The newly elected government in Pacific island nation of Vanuatu encountered a serious problem from the very first day of its term on Nov. 6 -- no one could use their government email accounts. But then the situation got worse. Much worse. From a report: Officials could not use any government computer services, from renewing a drivers' license to paying taxes or accessing medical and emergency information. They were forced to turn to 20th century technology -- pen and paper. That's a major problem in a nation where the population of around 320,000 people is distributed across dozens of islands north of New Zealand. 'Imagine if in the U.S. or the U.K. or Australia, a new government has started and there's a whole changeover... you can't even allocate email addresses to your new staff, you can't coordinate what's happening between ministers,' Glen Craig, managing partner of the consulting firm Pacific Advisory, told NPR in a phone interview.

'We're the first country in the world that this has happened to.... It's not a good time in Vanuatu, I can assure you,' continued Craig, who also serves as chairman of the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council. After more than three weeks of working on the problem, Prime Minister Alatoi Ishmael Kalsakau told local news outlets Wednesday that services were 70 percent restored. However, the disruption continues. Vanuatu's government officials first discovered suspicious activity on their networks, many of which are centrally connected, on Nov. 6. They revealed the breach to local media several days later, but have so far been fairly tight lipped about the extent of the damage, the possible culprits, and what's being done to recover service. Some sources have suggested the attack was ransomware, in which cybercriminals break in and take data hostage in exchange for payment, though the government has not officially confirmed whether that's the case or addressed whether a ransom payment was made.

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