The National Telecommunications Authority was hit with a sudden four-fold increase in incoming e-mail last week, leading to the shutdown of e-mail traffic to the country.
The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat’s economic infrastructure advisor said the cyber attack in the Marshalls is a wake-up call for Pacific countries.
John Budden, who also specializes in ICT, said Pacific countries are more vulnerable because such attacks are from outside the country. But he said there are some things countries can do.
“Make ourselves more robust, make ourselves able to switch off or divert or whatever else to make sure we have got redundant capacity in one way or another, alternate routes or things that make the overall network to this stream of traffic,” he said.
Budden said the problems which arise from such attacks can take a while to sort out.
