One of the four states that make up the Pacific nation of Micronesia is battling against ransomware hackers who have forced all of the computers used by its government health agency offline. On Wednesday, the Department of Health Services for the state of Yap warned the island’s 12,000 residents that a ransomware attack hit its systems on March 11. The island of Yap is north of Palau and south of Guam — both of which have drawn headlines in recent months for significant cyberattacks and ransomware incidents that impacted government services. The department is working with private IT contractors and other government agencies to get services back online, determine the extent of the infiltration and figure out what data has been breached. Ransomware attacks continue to impact government agencies globally, with groups specifically targeting smaller governments that typically lack the resources to defend sprawling networks. Micronesia would be the latest of several Pacific islands impacted by ransomware, including Vanuatu, Tonga and the Philippines. Palau’s health ministry announced a ransomware attack just two weeks ago. As a result, the Department now doesn’t have internet connectivity, and all computers are returned off to prevent further damage,” officials said in a message on social media. “Email communication through the health servers and all digital health systems are shut down,” the department said in its statement.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Fri, 14 Mar 2025 02:10:17 +0000