BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
Claims of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) network being hacked earlier this year are true but remain unknown.
Permanent Secretary (PS) for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade Colin Beck confirmed to local media during a press conference this month.
Mr Beck confirmed the issue when he responded to a question raised by Solomon Islands ABC reporter Chrisnrita Aumanu-Leong whether the PS had been aware of the issue.
“We can confirm that, yes, they did hack the system. This is something that happened earlier before the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga. It happened in Suva,” he said.
Mr Beck stated that they were informed by the PIF secretary-general on the matter, but not on details of how the matter was conducted.
“We were informed by the secretary-general on how they respond to it but did not talk on the specific how, you know the details of how and who did it,’’ he said.
He said that the fact that the PIF system is hacked is worrying.
“I, mean you do not want anyone to hack into any government system, organization or personal data. We did not get any information on where this has come from, but they dealt with the issue. That’s what we know about the hacking,’’ said Beck.
Mr Beck stressed that where or who was behind the hacking remains unknown.
“So, it’s frightening. But it’s something that we need to ensure that we need to deal with it. But that conversation happened in Suva rather than in Tonga,’’ said Beck.
Meantime ABC News reports that the hackers aimed to collect data regarding the Secretariat’s interactions with PIF member countries, as noted by the Australian government cyber experts who were deployed to Fiji during that period.
According to reports, ABC has received information indicating that the cyber breach attributed to the PIF, which was identified in February, was of a significant scale.
An analysis conducted by the Australian Cyber Security Centre, as reported by ABC, revealed that the attack was attributed to a group of hackers supported by the Chinese government.
The Chinese embassy however issued a statement refuting allegations that China was responsible for the hacking incident, characterizing the claims as “untrue and entirely baseless.”
“We firmly oppose the practice of politicizing cybersecurity issues, accusing other countries without evidence, and wantonly associating cyber-attacks with the government of any country.
“China has been significantly affected by cyber-attacks. We remain steadfast in our efforts to counteract all forms of harmful cyber activities through legal means, and we do not endorse, support, or tolerate cyber-attacks,” according to ABC News.
