PNG Government Financial System fully Restored following Cyber attack

The Papua New Guinea government Financial Management System has been fully restored following a cyber-attack in the form of Ransomware.

The country's Finance Minister John Pundari has said in  a statement.

PNG Government Financial System fully Restored following Cyber attack 

He says, the Department of Finance has managed and restored the Finance Management System back online, after the attack a week ago.

The cyber-attack happened on Friday the 22nd of October, with the hackers demanding the government to pay money. 

The system, which manages access to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid money, was disabled by attackers who demanded Bitcoin in ransom payment from PNG.

Pundari said the government and the people can be assured that the government financial services will continue as usual.

But as a precaution, he said the government was not allowing full usage of the affected network, while it cleaned up the server environment and adopted temporary measures.

These include all Government Departments and Agencies having access to commit and process cheque's using a controlled environment within Vulupindi Haus.

All provinces and districts will also have access to commit funds, through a controlled environment as a temporary arrangement.

Sir John, further clarified, that the Department is conscious of the security and integrity of its data thus, restoration of services to all government agencies, including at the sub-national level will be done gradually with added security layers to prevent similar attacks in the future.

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