Samoa’s information technology officials are working with Australian cyber security experts to bolster cyber security to protect the country from future attacks. 

This week Samoa is marking Cyber Smart Week and the focus is on strengthening the nation's security as attacks in the past have not been a good experience.

The Acting Prime Minister, Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio in his keynote address said the importance of protection of digital data could not be emphasised enough.

“Our communications and IT Sector Plan 2023-2027 highlighted the interconnected world that we live in nowadays where the digital realm intertwines with every aspect of our lives. The protection of our data and systems has become a matter of utmost importance,” he said.

“True resilience is not solely defined by our ability to respond to incidents. It is defined by how we bounce back from them.” 

Travis Alexander, Head of the Australia Cyber Security Center (ACSC) said the service they provide is cyber security advice to governments, businesses and individuals. Its mission is to make Australia the most secure place to connect online and to support Samoa and other Pacific nations to enhance their cyber security.

In October last year, a ransomware attack left Vanuatu’s government offline for almost 11 days. The online shutdown left 315 people living across several islands with the hardship of trying to carry out basic tasks like paying bills and processing travel documents and taxes. The attackers demanded a ransom, which the Vanuatu government refused to pay.

Australia played a big part in rebuilding Vanuatu's network and now they are on the move to ensure the rest of the Pacific has upgraded cyber-security systems in place to prevent what happened in the Melanesian country. 

“We are so connected that a cyber-attack against one of us can potentially threaten the Pacific security at large. But this connectivity can be used to our advantage in working together to create a secure cyber-network,” said Mr. Alexander. “We must continue to work together.

"We must continue to share our knowledge and capability. We are as strong as our weakest link.” 

As part of their work, they are here to support Samoa’s Computer Emergency Response Team to help educate the local community on some of the risks around cyber-security and how Samoa can improve its own cyber-security resilience.

The team is here for five days carrying out some training with locals on what to do during a cyber-security incident.

The Samoa Government expressed its gratitude to Australia for their contribution to these cyber awareness and support initiatives to secure Samoa’s digital future.

Samoa suffered a cyber attack in August 2021 where the Government's online portal was targeted. On 25 August 2021, the Government issued a statement that the Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure (M.W.T.I.) had successfully recovered files that were infiltrated in a cyber attack by ransomware between 2-3 August of that year.

The M.W.T.I. Chief Executive Officer Magele Hoe Viali said in a statement that the cyber attack infected a total of eight computers in the Ministry of which four belonged to the Transport Infrastructure Coordination Sector team.

Magele confirmed at that time that all files had been recovered. However, investigations continued in efforts to pinpoint where exactly the attack came through. Fortunately, due to quick action by the Ministry's IT department, the ransomware attack was confined to a few computers but it had a ripple effect as the technical team unplugged the whole system to prevent the cyber-bug from spreading.