美国国家公共电台 NPR--The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has been knocked offline for more than a month

The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has been knocked offline for more than a month

Transcript¹

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.

Officials could not use any government computer services, from renewing a drivers' license² 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 allocate³ email addresses to your new staff, you can't coordinate⁴ what's happening between ministers," Glen Craig, managing partner of the consulting firm Pacific Advisory⁵, 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 outlets⁶ 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 breach⁷ 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 ransom⁸ payment was made.

Vanuatu officials did not respond to NPR's requests for comment.

Although Vanuatu is not the first government to be targeted by a disruptive cyberattack, the length of the outage and the level of disruption may be unparalleled.

Additionally, the attack could be important geopolitically. Vanuatu is officially neutral, and maintains relationships with Western allies such as Australia as well as China. U.S. officials frequently describe China and its growing global influence as a key national security challenge.

The Australian government is on site helping⁹ local officials. Pat Conroy, Australia's minister for international development and the Pacific, told Vanuatu Daily in late November that Australia "sent in a team to assist with that disgraceful cyberattack and the response."

Cybercrime has become a global issue, costing governments and private companies billions of dollars through ransomware, extortion, email scams, and lost business.

Cybersecurity experts who have spoken with NPR in recent months have speculated that a strong response from the U.S. government to criminal cyberattacks in recent years may have prompted cybercriminals to shift their attention elsewhere. That includes recovering millions in Bitcoin ransoms¹¹ and depriving cybercriminals of some of their profits, such as when the Department of Justice seized $2.3 million, about half, of the ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline¹² to hackers¹³ in May 2021.

Other strategies include heavily publicizing intelligence on cybercrime, helping victims recover their files rather than pay ransoms, and extraditing cybercriminals from overseas to be tried in U.S. courts.

The Pacific region has been battered¹⁴ with an increased number of attacks recently, from a breach on Australian Telecom giant Optus, which exposed millions of sensitive Australian health records, to a ransomware attack on Papua New Guinea's government pay systems in October 2021. Australia's Cyber Security Centre reported in November that it received 76,000 cybercrime reports in the 2021-22 financial year, which ended in June.

It wasn't until Wednesday, that Prime Minister Kalsakau spoke¹⁰ about the breach in any detail. According to the Vanuatu Daily Post, he said partial access had been restored to government financial services, health procurement¹⁵ data, immigration and passport data, and, perhaps most importantly, emergency lines for ambulances, the fire department, and the police.

"In this recovery work, we are building back our government networks better and safer," Kalsakau is quoted as saying. "We are bringing systems online in a secure and contained environment with strengthened safeguards to ensure there is no risk of re-infection."

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

3 allocate   

vt.分配，分派；把…拨给；把…划归

参考例句：

• You must allocate the money carefully.你们必须谨慎地分配钱。
• They will allocate fund for housing.他们将拨出经费建房。

4 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

5 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

6 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 breach   

n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破

参考例句：

• We won't have any breach of discipline.我们不允许任何破坏纪律的现象。
• He was sued for breach of contract.他因不履行合同而被起诉。

8 ransom   

n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救

参考例句：

• We'd better arrange the ransom right away.我们最好马上把索取赎金的事安排好。
• The kidnappers exacted a ransom of 10000 from the family.绑架者向这家人家勒索10000英镑的赎金。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 ransoms   

付赎金救人，赎金( ransom的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The kidnappers exacted ransoms for their hostages. 绑匪勒索人质的赎金。
• Hotel:Wealthy captives sleep at the hotel for an increase in their ransoms. 酒店：富有的俘虏们要住在酒店等待足够的赎金以回家。

12 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

13 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

14 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

15 procurement   

n.采购；获得

参考例句：

• He is in charge of the procurement of materials.他负责物资的采购。
• More and more,human food procurement came to have a dominant effect on their evolution.人类获取食物愈来愈显著地影响到人类的进化。