The ABC is told the cyber breach was 'extensive' and that the group behind the hack was intent on gathering information about the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and its operations.
The ABC learns that the Australia n government sent cyber specialists to Fiji this year after the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat's networks were infiltrated by Chinese state backed hackers.
Beijing has also been building up policing ties in the region, holding its third annual meeting with Pacific police representatives in Fuzhou yesterday. A Pacific island government source told the ABC that PIF had quietly alerted its member states to the cyber breach, including at the leaders meeting in Tonga.The Pacific Islands Forum infiltration comes in the wake of multiple cyber attacks in the Pacific, with Australia deploying its roving teams of cyber experts at least half a dozen times to the region this year, although many of these missions have not been publicly advertised.
"It is absolutely vital that partner countries like Australia continue to provide emergency cyber incident response, as they have done through the multiple deployments of RAPID teams this year alone. "In the case of Palau this year, its Ministry of Finance was hit by a ransomware just as Palau renewed its 20-year Compact of Free Association with the US in March," he said.
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