China-linked hackers hit Fiji: US embassy

Hackers with links to China compromised a regional organisation in Fiji, the Pacific nation’s US embassy said Tuesday, warning that governments and telecommunication networks in the region were also being targeted.

Fiji is emerging as a major telecommunications hub in the Pacific Islands, as Google expands a network of subsea cables connecting the US military outpost of Guam, US defence ally Australia, French Polynesia and the mainland United States, via Fiji’s capital Suva.

Ioane Naivalurua, the island nation’s policing and communications minister, said he was reviewing the situation after the US embassy announced that a “regional organisation in Suva” had its network hacked between July and August.

“Hackers with links to China maintained access to the organization’s network over several days,” the embassy said in a statement posted on Facebook, without identifying the organisation.

US officials have previously urged cable host Fiji to boost cybersecurity to guard against data risks from China.

Naivalurua said police were investigating the reported attack and urged governments, organisations and the private sector to “take preventative action and harden the security of their respective digital systems”.

In Beijing, the Chinese foreign ministry said it was not aware of the case, but that it “firmly opposes hacking activities and cracks down on them in accordance with the law”.

“At the same time, we also oppose using cybersecurity issues to smear China,” spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing.

‘Significant corruption’

Fiji’s government had asked the United States on Friday to provide evidence for its claim last week that a Chinese state agency employee living in Fiji had paid bribes on behalf of Beijing.

The US State Department accused the man living in Suva of “significant corruption”.

The US embassy pointed Tuesday to action taken by the FBI in August to combat China-sponsored hackers targeting critical infrastructure in the United States.

The FBI action “matters directly for the Pacific”, the embassy said.

A group of hackers called QTFY included former members of China’s military, working for a company paid by China’s Ministry of State Security, had targeted NASA, the US Department of Energy and power companies, an FBI affadavit said.

China-linked hackers were targeting foreign governments, organisations and telecommunications networks in the Pacific Islands, the embassy wrote on Facebook.

The region’s political bloc, the Pacific Islands Forum, said it was not the organisation that had been hacked.

“While the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat is not affected, cybersecurity is increasingly important to the Pacific as the region’s digital security is closely linked to its economic resilience, national sovereignty, regional security, and wellbeing of Pacific communities,” a PIF spokeswoman told AFP.