It is vital that we ensure the resilience of Fiji’s critical infrastructure – Mason Smith

It is vital that our approach to ensuring the resilience of Fiji’s critical infrastructure is one of partnership that is clear, effective, consistent and comparable.

This has been highlighted by the Permanent Secretary of Home Affairs and Immigration, Mason Smith during the multi-stakeholders consultation workshop on the development of Fiji's National Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Framework.

Smith says critical infrastructure is increasingly interconnected and interdependent with teaching the platform's connectivity without proper safeguards creates significant vulnerabilities that compromise the essence of infrastructure, leading to a domino effect that degrades or disrupts others.

He says the results lead to cascading consequences for the economy, national security, and sovereignty as most critical infrastructure is provided by either the private sector or government.

The Permanent Secretary says it is vital that our approach to ensuring the resilience of this critical infrastructure is based on mutual partnerships.

Smith further says for the past couple of years threat actors have consistently targeted organizations in the energy utility, and other sectors that post critical infrastructure across our nation and indeed the region.

He says cyber criminals wherever they are in the world, are also developing the techniques employing double exposure techniques and targeting critical infrastructure.

The Permanent Secretary says cybercriminals are also using advanced techniques, including deep fake technology and sophisticated phishing schemes to exploit human vulnerabilities where we also continue to grapple with the challenges posed by compromised business, email and artificial intelligence-driven social engineering.

He reiterates the government's commitment is paramount in the protection of our critical infrastructure to ensure national security, public safety and a stable economy.

USAID and Pacific Islands Mission Director, Zema Semunegus says critical infrastructure systems directly impact public safety and national security - a cyberattack on critical infrastructure, such as a financial institution, could have severe consequences to essential services, the national economy, and even the loss of critical and private data.

Semunegus says the foundation of the United States and the Pacific partnership is listening and responding to Pacific priorities, which are informed by those outlined in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.

She says the United States supports the Pacific Islands with their digital transformations to better serve the Pacific people, protect our collective interests, boost competitiveness, and uphold our shared values.

She further says today's partnership that we are building through this multi-stakeholder engagement with cyber security experts from key sectors, the private sector, regional organizations, and universities -spearheaded by the Fijian government, in particular the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, will help us safeguard innocent people from cyber threats.